Thomas L. Knapp of Rational Review on Wishes, horses, small men and big lies:
Yesterday (Wednesday, April 9, 2003), the messages started filling my inbox: breathless “it’s over” messages referring to a dog-and-pony show held in the Iraqi capital. Marines toppled a statue of Saddam. A made-to-order crowed cheered and waved.
One prominent libertarian writer who should have known better proclaimed it “VI Day.” Another correspondent smugly referred readers to my article of March 27th, “Thinking the unthinkable,” in which I articulated the possibility that the U.S. might face military defeat. He apparently thinks that events have discredited that article. Hold that thought — we’ll be coming back to it.
As the celebration proceeded in Fardos Square, Marines fought for their lives — and at least one fell — attempting to dislodge Iraqi fighters from another of Saddam’s presidential palaces.
U.S. forces control some sectors (a minority of them) of Baghdad. Other sectors are under the control of what’s left of the Iraqi government. Still others appear to have been seized, and appear to be being fortified, by foreign fighters drawn from around the Arab world and intent on resisting the U.S. invasion. And there are, no doubt, parts of Baghdad where no discernible authority exists at all.
Oh yeah, that “victory” of ours in Afghanistan is still pending, contrary to popular belief:
I’d like to focus, for the moment, on the wishing did make it so phenomenon exclusively. The War Party has made a lot of hay lately by bringing up Afghanistan. “See, it went easy, just like Afghanistan — the naysayers are 0 for 2.”
This kind of rhetoric requires considerably more testicular fortitude than the “cover my ass” remarks of Rumsfeld et al, for the simple reason that the wishing did make it so phenomenon burns away like fog under a hot sun the instant one digs past the Iraq headlines and simply reads the news. Unfortunately, the War Party seems to be correct in its assumption that few Americans will fall off of the wishing will make it so bandwagon for long enough to do so.
18 months into the occupation of Afghanistan, U.S. troops are finding out, the hard way, what their Soviet counterparts found out two decades ago.
The Taliban, through affiliated tribal warlords, still holds sway over most of the country. Officials of the U.S.-installed government are assassinated with disconcerting regularity. U.S. troops can’t leave their fortified bases without being fired upon — and a concerted Taliban offensive is expected to come in with the spring.
Cakewalk city and dancing in the street. Brother Knapp bringing the reality check.