VOTE FOR MORE WAR . . . OR DIE

Apologists for the bumbling Administration and it's Congressional lap dogs have moved into a new phase of spin the past couple weeks. I call it the "Vote For Hawks Or You'll Die Strategy," and it's everywhere you look lately. Under this new technique, which Joe Lieberman proved is not just for Republicans, the Iraq War-supporting incumbant and/or his stooges in the press will tell you, in no uncertain terms, "If You Vote For My America-Hating Opponent In November, You Will Suffer A Painful, Hideous, Horrifying Death."

Check out some of the hysterical (take that word anyway you wish) language busted out by Stanley Kurtz, in this piece from yesterday's National Review (Tip o' the hat to The Cunning Realist):

We don’t have the luxury of sitting on our hands in the next election. We don’t have the luxury of punishing slack Republican legislators on the theory that this will somehow produce a tougher conservative line in 2008. We don’t have the luxury of all this because a nuclear Iran is bearing down on the United States, while our country stands paralyzed by its own divisions. You can blame Iraq if you like. I blame the Democrats’ Vietnam syndrome. But no matter who you blame, the sad fact of the matter is, the president’s hands are tied. The president cannot confront Iran with a credible threat of force, much less actually strike it, without greater domestic support . . . A nuclear Iran is likely to give or lend nuclear weapons to terrorists, resulting in an undeterrable nuclear strike against an American city or cities . . . A Democratic victory this fall will solidify that situation, leaving Iran to race to nuclear capability before 2009 when a new president–especially a possible Republican president with greater political capital–accedes to power. So don’t sit there and mope. Get out and vote. Yes, we are paralyzed right now. However important it is to keep the option of a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities on the table, America’s internal political conflict has taken it off the table. Accounts from both the left and right say we face a nuclear-armed Iran that cannot be deterred on the model of the Cold War. Either we get out and vote, or we’re left to face down this menace with both hands tied behind our back.

(Emphases added). The "problem" isn't State Department/Defense Department incompetence, nor is the "problem" lack of accountability, inflexible military strategy & tactics. Nope. The problem isn't even militant Islam. No! The problem is those damn America-haters back home, "tying the hands" of the brave leaders in Foggy Bottom & Arlington. Didn't we hear that one about 35 years ago?

Continuing our journey through the weird world of "The Pro-Bush Blogosphere," here's more fun & frivolity from Protein Wisdom (Tip to TBogg this time), responding to critiques of the latest barrage of Bush bullshit known as Monday's press conference:

As you’ll see, Bush remains (as is his signature stance) determined and resolute, but for some of the GWOT’s most stalwart early supporters, steady conviction is no longer enough. What they want to see is action—and for many, the US / Israeli capitulation to Hezbollah via the UN cease fire agreement, coupled with Iran’s blustery and confident intransigence, is sending all the wrong signals . . . if all we can manage politically at this point, even with someone as stubborn Bush in office, is to declare victory by staying the course—then our adversarial press and the cynical opportunists on the left (with an assist from the nativists on the paleocon right) will have shown the world that America is indeed the weak horse, crippled by its own inner tensions and power struggles, and by the soft transnational leftism that, by controlling the narrative and sowing seeds of manipulated dissent, pushes us ever closer to its goal of turning the US into a kind of European satellite nation and prevents us from committing to the kind of difficult, long-term projects that may just affect the kind of change necessary to stave of an otherwise inevitable worldwide conflagration brought about by an emboldened and resolute Islamism.

(Emphases added). Whoa! Now them's some fancy doses of rhetoric from Mr. Protein. Crippled by its own inner tensions! Controlling the narrative and sowing seeds of manipulated dissent! Day-umm. Makes me think of some of the "bad writing" Orwell spoke of (read: mocked) in Politics and the English Language.

But the one I really love is adversarial press, meant as an example of something that's hurting us. Man, oh man, where have we come to? All I can say regarding an adversarial press is: "If only."

Finally, I'd like to end with a comment someone posted under the TBogg piece I alluded to earlier. Her user name is "D. Sidhe," and here's what she said:

Oh, no. These assholes don't get to unshackle themselves from Bush and his failed policies, to include any wars he's already started and any he plans on starting, and retreat back into "We're Reagan Conservatives!" until they apologize publicly for voting for the son of a bitch twice, and do some significant community service, and then sign papers saying they will never, ever again speak in a room with more than three people who are not of their own immediate family.

Ideally I want to see their asses painting up a bunch of schools in Iraq, and I want these bastards to pay for the paint themselves.

Jesus, the mess these people have made of the planet, and we're supposed to trust that there's some reason for optimism and accept that it's all the media's fault, that the liberals caused all this and they were just sitting there watching in passive voice? Screw them. Screw them all.

The whole system is so broken I don't think we'll ever fix it, and they're already making plans to announce that Bush just didn't kill enough people because he was too compassionate and too scared of the liberal media.

Screw them. Tie Bush around their necks, tie Iraq around their necks, like a fucking millstone, and let's watch the whole conservative, paleo or neo, sink deep into the ocean trenches. You failed, boys. Failed badly.

And one of the consequences of failing this badly is that you have to shut up and let actual adults take charge and clean this shit up. I don't give a rat's ass whether you're ready to live with it. Sit down, and don't raise your hand again until you have something useful to say.

Amen.