Karen Kwiatkowski, my favorite retired Air Force LtCol on Holding Fire:
Secretary of State Colin Powell tells us, "Those who are so critical of the administration might want to hold their fire…" He said this in the context of his recent trip to Iraq and the "hope" he saw there. One hears a faint murmur of parley in Washington.
Powell is echoing Rumsfeld’s suggestion last week that "those who have been critical of the administration's handling of the war in Iraq and its aftermath might be encouraging enemies of the United States to believe that it might one day walk away from the effort, as it has in past conflicts." Considering Rummy’s vast personal experience fighting in such conflicts in Vietnam, Beirut and Somalia – adventures we walked into stupidly and away from too late – one is left to wonder only whether Rumsfeld is simply ignorant or willfully ignorant.
I love this chest-thumping from the Administration. What's next? Detention camps for anti-war critics?