Al Franken was a guest on Hardball today, and he
swiftly annihilated conservative columnist Tony Blankley's feeble defense of the Bush Administration's clusterfuck in Iraq. The following exchange supports the theory that Clinton firing back would, in a sense, give a permission slip to everyone to speak up - or as Keith said last night, finally revoke the President's Free Pass.
First, Matthews quotes the NIE, and asks Tony Blankley to respond. I would advise holding your nose before you click below the fold (I feel rather unclean having listened to it over and over transcribing it). Don't worry, its worth it because he really gets Franken riled up, who then proceeds to administer a deservedly scathing rebuttal.
"The Iraq conflict has become the cause celebre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supports for the global jihadist movement."
Blankley: Yeah look I think this is a commonplace. I have been arguing for years that of course that the enemy is going to come to the sound of the guns. Whether Afghanistan was the right place to go is a matter of separate debate. But the fact that we engaged them, they were going to engage back and rally - this is to me an obvious point. That's why I defended Howard Dean in 2004 when he said we're not safer. I don't think we're going to be safer for a generation.
Matthews: Why do you go to war if the cost is casualties and thousands of American lives and you end up with more terrorists than you started with?
The most obvious question with a most obvious answer - YOU DON'T. But that's not what Tony thinks! As a delicious appetizer to Franken's exquisitely prepared filet mignon just ahead, Matthews skewers his illogical explanation:
Blankley: Because its not the end of the war yet! Because at this point, we're engaging the enemy. They're coming to the sound of our guns. We're fighting, they're rallying their side, we're trying to rally ours.
Matthews: What about Recruitment.
Blankely: Of course there's recruitment. You get more troops. As the war progresses, and then at some point you hope you that you overwhelm them - in this case a combination of ideas and struggle over a generation. But you can't measure the success of a war by stopping in the first few moments of it and say "there's more of the enemy."
Matthews: If when we were fighting the Germans in World War II and every time we killed a German, ten appeared out of nowhere to join the German movement, we would have lost. We would have lost.
(Emphasis mine.)
Indeed. Just as George W. Bush's father - who actually knew a thing or two about leading a successful coalition of the willing in a Post-Cold War World - warned us we would lose this war. This is where Tony falls apart and makes a point that no serious person would take seriously, which Chris Matthews does not:
Blankley: When France and Britain declared war in Germany in 1939, there were no Nazis in France. By 1940, there were a million Nazi Soldiers in France. Of course! The Nazis came to the sound of the gun. Eventually we beat the Nazis.
Matthews: But they came from Germany.
Blankley: Right.
Matthews: But these people are coming from all over the world to join the cause of jihadhism. You're treating it like an ethnic group. These are people from all over the Islamic world to join in the jihadist movement.
Blankley: Some of them are coming from Saudi Arabia, some of them are coming from England...
Matthews then throws him a life preserver in the form of cutting him off promptly, dismissing his drivel. Mike Barnacle then pointed out that the NIE was completed weeks before Zarqawi's death - and quite inaccurately predicted that his demise would likely lead to a less organized, less serious set of smaller threats. He wondered what else they were wrong about.
That was the lightning bolt, moments later came the thunderclap.
Franken: I don't know what Tony's talking about. We were told this war would last just a few weeks. Rumsfeld wouldn't plan for after the war, we're just going to go in there, a Jeffersonian democracy was going to emereg in Iraq, it was going to be a model for the whole Middle East, it would put pressure on the mullahs in Iran and the moderates would take over there, which they would de-fund Hezbollah. That's what we were told. And now we're being told that 'Oh of course, we're in the middle of the war now, and they respond to the sounds of the guns.'
What is that?
Of course Afghanistan was the right thing to do. And the world was behind us. When we went into Iraq, we did it on false pretenses. This President misled us into a war. And it was a huge gamble. And he has lost. And the American people have lost. And the 2,700 men and women who have died there have lost. And their families have lost. And the 20,000 who have been wounded have lost. And how dare you say -
this is just a complete re-spin of what was said before we went in there. And I resent it.
If Tony Blankley wasn't such an ass, I would be embarassed for him as he proceeds to get smug with Franken about how he would think differently he had simply been exposed to the brilliance of a column he wrote four years ago.
Blankley: Look, look Al, you should've been reading my columns before we went in there and you'd understand things a little bit better. I wrote a column before the war in September of 2002 - -
Oh no you didn't. Would Tony have taken such a condescending tone if moments before he opened his mouth he had considered the fact that every single lying-ass conservative pundit that has the misfortune of blipping on Al Franken's radar has been eviscerated on the pages in at least one of his many best-selling books? We'll never know...
Franken: I think I understand things perfectly well. Tony I think its you who don't understand things. And don't be patronizing like that okay?
Blankley: Well you didn't understand what I was saying so I was trying to explain it to you Alan, if you'd -
Franken: Okay, well try to explain it to me because I'm a little thick here Tony. Didn't you say - didn't the President say this would be over soon? Weren't we going to be treated like liberators? Greeted with sweets & flowers?
Blankley: Let me talk for a second Alan. I wrote a column September 2002 entitled "Mentalist Peril" and I was quoting Henry Kissinger on why we were going into Iraq next spring, which we did. And it was to make a larger point - it wasn't exactly the argument Bush was making, because I didn't think it was the full argument, I still don't think it was. We have to go in and make a presense in Iraq, in the Middle East and build from there. I expected and I wrote and I described to my readers that there was going to be all kinds of danger, a lot of very powerful reaction but it was going to be worth it, I still believe its worth it. Because we have to engage and defeat them defeat this burden. By the way, this report, by the National Estimate here - -
Franken: The Intelligence Estimate, Tony, the NIE. Let me explain it to you, its the National Intelligence Estimate.
Blankley: It says "if we beat them in Iraq, they will be dispirited." Now thats the part of the quote that was the part of the quote that was not leaked to the New York Times, because the New York Times cherry-picked the quotes.
Franken: Speaking of cherry-picking, are you accusing the New York Times of cherry-picking and not accusing the Bush Administration of cherry-picking? How about Dick Cheney leading into the war saying that there was no doubt. Let me explain something to you Tony...
(Emphasis Mine.)
Matthews spares Blankley and takes them into commerical. If Crooks & Liars or another site posts a video link, let me know and I'll add it to the lead-in of the diary.
But we're not quite done! For dessert, at the end of the program, Al Franken said that if George Allen made up the word "Macaca" - it still has the word "kaka" in it. "I don't call Tony Blankley 'McCoo-coo' which is slang for 'Crazy Brit.'" Tony just sat there, and a few seconds later it set in on Franken how funny it was and how much Tony actually deserved the title it and it made him laugh, heartilly. You, and I can join him and the rest of the thinking world who don't agree with Mr. Bush that its "naive" or a "mistake" to think we shouldn't be in Iraq. I think we all know who's naive and mistaken here.
I am so glad to be done with this diary, now I can go watch Keith on my DVR.
[ UPDATE I: ] Here's the Video Link from MSNBC.com. Enjoy... Thanks to TVOR and Tanya!