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June 30, 2005
The Unconstructive Herbert
I've never believed Bob Herbert to be much of a writer, but his column today is a doozie. As far as I can discern, its thesis is that "Iraq is a quagmire because the war has been prosecuted incompetently." But then it's hard to say, because it's such a jumbled mess.
Let's take a lookie at this journalistic catastrophe. Following are the subjects of the 12 paragraphs in Herbert's column, in order:
1. The President had to make a speech about the war. [Ha ha.] 2. The definition of "quagmire" is "a situation from which extrication is very difficult." 3. Over 1,730 American soldiers have died in Iraq. 4. One of them was really young, and she's from the Bronx. 5. Two years ago the President foolishly said of insurgents, "Bring' em on." 6. Senator Frank Lautenberg didn't like that comment. 7. Bush didn't have a plan then, and he doesn't have a plan now. 8. High-level incompetetence is undermining the troops' effort. 9. Too commonly, areas are freed from insurgents, only to be re-taken because of our lack on manpower. 10. The White House believes Iraqi troops will help defeat the insurgency. 11. This is stupid. 12. Because of incompetence, we can expect to be in a quagmire for a while.
(MORE AFTER THE JUMP)
Herbert’s thesis appears, I think, in the 12th paragraph: "the troops doing the fighting deserve to be guided by leaders in Washington who are at least minimally competent at waging war. That has not been the case, which is why we can expect to remain stuck in this tragic quagmire for the foreseeable future."
As for the other paragraphs: We can toss out paras. 3 & 4 immediately (not to be forgotten, but nothing to do with Herbert’s thesis); as well as 1 (unadorned ridicule). Para. 6 is not relevant, and 8 simply repeats his thesis.
Leaving in the rest, then, and re-ordering things for logic's sake, we have this:
Because of incompetence, we can expect to be in a quagmire for a while (12).
The definition of a "quagmire" is "a situation from which extrication is very difficult" (2). The Iraqi people will not be able to contrbute meaningfully to defeating the insurgents, and this is true because I say it is, and it is typical Bush stupidity to believe my conclusory prediction is untrue (10 & 11).
I believe the Bush crowd is incompetent because: the President foolishly said of insurgents, "Bring' em on" (5) and because Bush has never had a plan and I know this because I say it frequently (7), and because American troops have often freed towns from insurgents, only to see them retaken because they have to leave (9). They are stupid if they disagree with my conclusory prediction about the Iraqi people (10 & 11).
So even after we winnow this mess down to its logical core, Herbert offers no facts and no evidence to support the first half of his thesis (incompetence) other than that Bush once taunted the insurgents (which was indeed foolish). He attempts to support the “quagmire” part with misdirection (Bronx soldier) and an unfortunate and apparently common occurrence in Iraq, but no logical connection is offered.
I mean, really -- what rubbish. So much for a constructive opposition.
Posted by bill at June 30, 2005 01:46 PM
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