Cluelessness everywhere

The Bush administration's successful kick-the-can scam is unprecedented in American history, as is the political opposition's apparent willingness to simply watch the can get kicked. Even in the Vietnam war, Lyndon Johnson effectively resigned from power once the homefolks turned on him; and by the end of his first term, Richard Nixon had effectively ended any sustained American presence in Southeast Asia.

Both attempted the bald-faced spin strategy of the Bush administration -- we're winning, so we must stay, said Johnson; we're achieving peace with honor, so we must stay, said Nixon -- but fewer and fewer were buying it. In the end, the transparency of their failed promises and the resulting fierceness of their opposition were too stark to permit a stay-the-course reality.

Fast forward to today. Virtually no one is buying the administration's spin, since virtually nothing has gone as promised in Iraq. But never has an administration been so self-assured and politically secure.

It trots out its senior officials every week on the Sunday talk shows, who promise some more. On the heels of saying American forces might be reduced to 100,000 by the end of 2008, for instance, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said yesterday that "the idea is that we would have a much more limited role in Iraq for some protracted period of time as a stabilizing force, a force that would be a fraction of the force that we have there now."

What constitutes a "fraction"? Whoa. Can't say. It's "far too soon to nail down precise levels; much would depend on whether there was no unraveling of the progress reported last week by General David H. Petraeus," as the NYT paraphrased Mr. Gates.

But you have his word on it -- "the idea," that is, of a smaller presence, sometime down the road, although they can't say when, since it depends on progress, which is elusive and unsubstantiated, which can't be permitted to unravel, which nevertheless it is doing before our eyes, having never been "raveled" to begin with.

And these are the people in charge -- without a clue; even brazenly, openly, publicly clueless (except on their determination to stay). Still, they're in charge, self-assuredly and securely.

The greatest offensive the opposition can come up with is a sideshow skirmish over troop R&R. Yesterday, on one of those talk shows, Sen. Joe Biden said what everyone already knows: "If you don’t figure out how to get these folks some time home, you are going to break, break this military."

To which Mr. Gates answered: Well, that's nice, and certainly "well-intentioned," but gosh darn it, it would be "extremely difficult." And, at any rate, if you fellows force the issue, "We’d have to look at potentially making greater use of the Guard and Reserve."

With that, the skirmish's outcome was predetermined. Like the extortionist mobsters they are, administration officials are threatening, in effect: "Fine, you do that. Knock yourself out. But remember, we know where your kids live and where they go to school. Still feel like pushing back?"

Therefore this week's Senate debate -- the skirmish -- is all but over before it begins. It may survive to the veto stage, but the dog-and-pony bloodletting will have been for nothing.

And the hell of it is, everyone knows it.

What Congressional Democrats can't seem to fathom, however, is that the fable of David and Goliath doesn't generally work in the non-mythological world. You can't attack a monstrous behemoth with a slingshot or pop gun and expect battlefield victory.

You attack, instead, with overwhelming force, or at least as much as you can muster. And you never, ever relent. Do that, and the opposition solidifies, just as the Republican minority did with the White House over the summer.

In short, the Dems have things backward. They say they can't force a withdrawal because the votes aren't there. Yet the votes are likely not there because they're not forcing a withdrawal.

They have ceded both territory and the offense, leaving the administration's clueless spin and self-assured can-kicking to fill the vacuum. The Dems are as unprecedentedly clueless as the administration; hence the unprecedented nature of this entire fiasco.

Comments

[kenoshaMarge]

Thus the gutless, clueless Democrats, with a majority of the people of this country behind them play once again into Bush's hands. It is unbelievable! They will soon have as much blood on their hands as the Republican thugs.

[Richard]

The Democrats need only 41 votes a filibuster to stop the war. Don't pass any more funding. It's as simple as that.

Oh yeah, they will be accused of not supporting the troops, cutting and running and not being patriotic. So? What else is new? They will be accused of that NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO! So, what's to be afraid of? They are going to be attacked anyway.

Why proved the Republicans correct by being so cowardly.

If you are afraid of standing up to the Republicans, how can we trust you to protect us?

[NeoAmerican]

Welcome to Eternal War. We haven't even bombed Syria and Iran yet, how could we leave Iraq?

There is no opposition party in the US. The sooner you learn this, the sooner you'll stop feeling disappointed.

Both sides are controlled by the Pro-Israel lobby who want the Middle East a smoking ruin for their benefit.

[Hotrod54235]

Someone once said that the Democrats never did anything-it was the radicals who forced the issues. I would tend to agree, where are the radicals these days to give the Democrats some cover? I cannot believe that Bush/Cheney was able to hold their captive events without a group of people infiltrating them and making a spectacle. Have we all gotten too soft?

[Medusa]

The opposition still isn't pulling real hard for the Constitution, huh? Savage egos seem to be preventing this, that whole "you can't order me around" attitude on the 'left' needs to be sacrificed for something more important, namely our nation. Why Dem pages aren't running around finding out exactly what #s are needed to pass things, why they didn't call the cap cops when they were the minority & locked out is beyond me. Find a judge who is not insane & put it in that district, whatever broken laws you want to fix, act like it matters!

[beamer]

we are witness to an endless parade of preening assholes,a confederacy of dunces enertain us with nothing but posturing patriotic drivel and bald-faced lies-whose the fool now?

[lambert strether]

"Clueless" is really another name for the incompetence dodge.

We really need to get over the idea that the Conservative movement that's running the country is incompetent at doing the things they care about: Primarily taking advantage of "disasters" to loot the public treasury and implement new busines models.

Please read Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine. That will disabuse you of any notion that these guys are anything clueful. It's just that we can't rid ourselves of the notion that the government has the interests of the country at heart.