Trust me, I know that's not a real word.
I'm getting sick of the vague and general argument that any critical discussion of the war and its obvious failures in certain respects "helps the terrorists." Captain Dave goes even farther by arguing that a critical MENTALITY alone does so. Nice. I can't even agree with the war, express no opinion on the current status of military operations, and merely point out that the war should have been integrated better into our broader policy and sold better here at home. To criticize Bush's foreign policy performance AT ALL is somehow a victory for Al Qaeda.
This is typical of the neocons. And no, I'm not saying anyone is trying to take away my freedom of speech. I'm saying that the effort to convince me that constructive policy criticisms of any nature must be suppressed because the terrorists like it when people disagree with Bush is a huge mistake. I will not cede the discussions over this war and this administration's sometimes-brilliant, sometimes-atrocious foreign policy initiatives to a bunch of Likud-loving Pentagon policy wonks who refuse to admit, much less learn from, their mistakes.
I have constantly pilloried economist-types who sit at their desks babbling about free trade theory while condescending to those from other disciplines who point out the effects of certain economic policies on culture, national security, and the like. So will I pillory Pentagon-types who focus exclusively on their interpretation of the military situation in Iraq while blithely dismissing discussion of the domestic political and international public relations harm their refusal to think more broadly has caused their country.
