Originally posted by oboe
I'm just not seeing blaming the Left for this debacle. The Dems did not control any branch of govenment during this time. Toad or Lukster, can you supply concrete examples of how the Left is responsible for the mistakes made that have lead to the current situation? I don't follow your logic at all. Do we all agree that accepting personal responsibility for one's mistakes is the correct course (as Mr. Bush did in his speech last night)?
Sabre, your statement that the press is responsible for maintaining the national will is surprising to me. I think the proper role of the press in a democracy is to report the unvarnished truth, period. You seem to be suggesting that the role of the press is that of a propagandist. That's a little scary. Is that right, or do I misunderstand?
Oboe: You misunderstand. What I said was, "In WWII, the press would report bad news, but would also go out of it's way to report when things went right. They understood that maintaining the national will to win was every bit as important as building tanks, planes and ships."
That is, I did not say that the press was "responsible for maintaining the national will," only that focusing almost exclusively on the negative would sap the nations will to perservere. Back in WWII, they understood the consequence of defeat and would not actively work to undermine the effort. In this war, they
have indeed been active propogandists, but for the terrorists and insurgents!
As for the mistakes made, President Bush has accepted his responsibility for them, even some that he probably couldn't have avoided. However, I must make the counter-point that the left (embodied in the Democratic party leadership) exacerbated those mistakes by emboldening the enemy in Iraq with their constant amplification of those mistakes, incessant criticism of the whole effort, by denegrating our troops, by leaking and or opposing every measure the Administration has enacted to fight the war, and by themselve going so far as to call the entire war unlawful and the President's actions criminal...all in the name of political expediency. Remember too that most of those same Dems voted to authorize the war in the first place. Had they put even half of the energy they've subsequently expended in bashing the President into supporting the War on Terror (which arguably includes Iraq), perhaps it would have been over long ago.
