Gingrich calls Iraq War Failure, Powell calls it Civil War

BEDFORD, N.H. -- Former House speaker Newt Gingrich told a New Hampshire audience yesterdaythat unless the Bush administration admits that the war in Iraq is a "failure," it will never develop a strategy to leave the country successfully.

Well, it's nice that Newt has the "courage" to decide to call this puppy a failure now after the election and all that. It's this kind of "leadership" that will certainly propel him to the Presidency in 2008. It reminds me of the Vanity Fair piece with the neo-cons, who all thought it was for publication after the election where they admit that the war sucks, their idea suck, and Chimp executed their crappy ideas in a manner of incompetence that reached bounds of great suckitude that have only been pondered in tall stories and in legends of the past.

Colin Powell on the other hand, now admits it's Civil War. Colin of the Pottery Barn Rule (if you break it, you must fix it fame), has some serious debits on his charge cards. Powell was the figure neo-liberals/liberal hawks used to justify their support of this atrocity. Powell had such (unmerited) credibility that if he said Iraq was swimming in WMD's, then it must be true. It's nice for Powell to call it a civil war, again of course once the election is over.

Speaking with CNN reporter Hala Gorani in Dubai today, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said Iraq’s violence meets the standard of a civil war and thinks President Bush needs to acknowledge that. According to Gorani’s report, Powell said if he were heading the State Department right now, he would recommend that the Bush administration adopt that language "in order to come to terms with the reality on the ground."

That honesty, and bluntness might have been handy actually before you went in front of the UN, Powell, but I am sure that David Broder not only forgives you, but will pen a column dedicated to how serious and wonderful your being is any day now.

Which reminds me. Now that we are in full mea culpa, being honest about lies and errors in judgement, isn't it time for the media to answer to their readers for a change? Why do Broder, and Brooks, and Richard Cohen all have jobs? If you are a baseball player and you continually strike out, don't you get demoted? If you are a homicide detective and you always point the finger at the wrong person don't you get the hook? That streetwise beat man who figured out who done it, shouldn't he get promoted into the squad?

Analogies upon analogies fit here. The question remains. Why are our newscasts and newsprint filled with people who continually fuck up? Just because the dirty hippies were right, does that mean that dirty hippies should not get their say too? I propose that every pundit, politician, blowhard needs to have a scorecard done on them prior to a war, an election, a vote and actually be accountable for what they say. It's a weird concept, but most of us are used to it. We work for a living.