(Let me know if this was already posted... I did a search but didn't see it.)
Last week, over at Bull Moose (the motto's been changed to "All Bull, No Moose"), Marshall Wittman chose to bring up the mercenaries killed in Iraq last year and Markos' unfortunate "Screw 'em" post (which he subsequently recanted).
Why bring this up? (And continue to bring it up?)
Wittman likes Lieberman. Kos apparently appeared in a Lamont commercial (I haven't seen it, being in Illinois and all). And after the delegate vote in Connecticut, in which Lamont's surprisingly strong showing scared the bejeezus outta the Lieberman camp, Wittman's got an ax to grind.
So Wittman dragged the "Screw 'em" episode out of the attic trunk. Only he didn't say they were mercenaries.
In true Rovian fashion, he called them "American victims of terrorism"...
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Moose Cameo
Now that Mr. Kos has performed in a Lamont ad, should the Moose make a cameo for Joe?
And the Moose also wonders whether Mr. Lamont was aware of Mr. Kos' infamous "screw 'em" comments about the American victims of terrorism? (emphasis added)
Inquiring minds would like to know.
"American victims of terrorism"?
Were they American?
Check.
Were they victims?
Check, though clearly they were well-armed mercenaries who wandered into an unprotected area without proper manpower or firepower. It ain't like they worked in the kitchen at Windows on the World or managed funds for Cantor Fitzgerald...
But "victims of terrorism"?
Highly debatable... Were the American revolutionary soldiers "terrorists" because they fought the invading British? At that point in the aftermath of the American invasion of Iraq, the Iraqis weren't so much terrorists as they were more like the Viet Cong trying to get the foreigners out of their home. (Not that I want anyone to be killed -- nor that I'm pro-Iraqi or pro-VC or Blame America First or whatever right-wing extremist crap anyone chooses to poop out of their mouths -- but the mercenaries were well paid to be in-country when they were when they were killed. They were there by choice, unlike our soldiers.)
Perhaps this is why witless Wittman is behind Lieberman all the way -- they buy into the same extremist line that every enemy is now a terrorist.
Gee guys, did ya stop to think maybe, just maybe, Bush and Lieberman's "leadership" in this illegal war of choice is creating more terrorists than it's killing? That our soldiers are fodder for terrorists-in-training? That Bush, Rumsfeld, and Lieberman have given Osama bin Laden all the terrorist recruiting posters he'll ever need?
Did you stop to think their might be a better way for Democrats than to follow the lemmings over the Iraqi cliff? (And that standing up against those lemmings might actually be the true principled stand?)
By the DLC line of reasoning, we can't kill the terrorists fast enough because all their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters keep getting in that terrorist line right behind all the dead "terrorists"... And the DLC can't figure out why...
Wittman, take your li'l bag of goodies from the Lieberman campaign and leave us moderates over here on "the extreme left" alone. We don't need your corporatista elitism talking down to us -- we can figure things out just fine on our own. You don't play for the same team anymore, so stop trying to sound like you do. (By the by, the Dems already are in political exile and it's specifically because the party elites pandered to the self-interested consultants and fed at the DLC trough a few too many years, abandoning its history, its base and its principles in the process.)
And, by the way, we know Lamont got twice what he needed (33%) -- but now so does Lieberman and it's got his people worried. Reality is an unkown is 17%+1 away from winning the primary and he has til August to get known and find those 17%+1 voters.
That's why "the extreme left" is excited about actually having a progressive to replace Joementum in what should be a blue state.
Just how principled can one be in standing up for failure?
When will the past-its-prime, can't-see-the-big-picture right-wing of the political left learn to work constructively with liberals and progressives instead of continuing to foment the politics of destruction?
Inquiring minds want to know, indeed.