Debra Saunders, Give the President Some Credit
Excerpt:
I do, however, object to a Beltway mentality, seen in how Washington journalists report on the politics of the war, which reflects the apparent belief that wars are supposed to go by the book. When television news anchors announce bad news, they usually frame it as a reflection on Bush, not the insurgents.
Or as British Prime Minister Tony Blair put it in a speech this week, insurgency forces "play our own media with a shrewdness that would be the envy of many a political party. Every act of carnage adds to the death toll. But somehow, it serves to indicate our responsibility for disorder, rather than the act of wickedness that causes it. For us, so much of our opinion believes that what was done in Iraq in 2003 was so wrong that it is reluctant to accept what is plainly right now."
Bush does not have the luxury of allowing the bad news to defeat him. Yes, Bush could declare victory and pull out. After all, Saddam Hussein no longer rules. But Bush understands that there can be no victory if Islamic extremists see the United States engage its powerful military, only to bolt when the public gets antsy.
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