Republicans' Evening at the Improv
War is "serious business", says Bush: thank goodness for the comic relief of Republican talking points

November 21 2005
Counterbias.com
Steve Horowitz
 

I'm getting a good laugh from the feeble attempts of the Bush administration and its supporters to set its war critics straight.

We're "irresponsible," "dishonest" and "reprehensible." We're "encouraging the terrorists." We want to "cut and run." We don't understand that America is "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here."

Talking points, ripped straight from the fax machine. Incapable of original thought. painted into a shrinking corner by their own shameful lies, Republicans now lash out blindly as Americans, their elected representatives and -- yes, it's finally happening -- the press open their eyes and regain their balls.

My favorite talking point -- one that I hope gets repeated over and over, so that even the dimmest voters recognizes the argument from Vietnam -- comes from Republican Rep. David Dreier. It was his eloquent response to House colleague John Murtha's call for our immediate withdrawal from Iraq.

"It would be," said Dreier Thursday, "a real insult to the lives that have been lost."

Yes, it's the Vietnam-era "so-they-won't-have-died-in-vain" argument: Now that we've lost so many service members for no discernible reason, let's lose more.

But then, Team Bush wants us to believe there was a reason. That why they've been flailing about so energetically over the past week. Depending on which administration apologist is reciting the talking points, that reason is:

a.) Bad WMD intelligence (for which the administration should apparently not be held responsible.)

b.) To make America safer (apparently by uniting even once-moderate Muslims in an all-consuming hatred of America.)

c.) To defeat the terrorists (apparently by turning Iraq into the world's best training ground for terrorists)

d.) The altruistic desire to deliver Iraq from Saddam (for which the Iraqi people daily demonstrate their gratitude.)

It's all so ... well, I'll just say it: Amusing.

Oh, I know that war is "serious business," as Bush said Thursday. (Like a deserter would know.) And I know that almost 2,100 American families will have one less seat at the table on Thanksgiving. But I can't help it. I get a laugh at the personal attacks that are the only hope Bush, Cheney and crew have left if they are to re-pull the wool over the country's eyes. 

Scott McClellan, for example. He issued a freshly desperate set of talking points yesterday, attacking decorated war vet and Democratic ultra-hawk John Murtha for "endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party."

Try to count how many times you hear that one over the next few days.