Al Qaeda in Iraq:

In a 1,566 word essay in the Weekly Standard, Don't Abandon the Iraqis, Fred Kagan tries to make his case. And a lot depends on his assertion that al Qaeda is the big threat there. He mentions al Qaeda 18 times, which is a little over one percent of all the words in the essay. Like rasins in a muffin, almost.

Kagan is echoing Bush (or is it the other way around?) by trying to scare the public with al Qaeda - think "9/11" - in order to keep the troops in Iraq. But will it sell?

Over at Belgravia Dispatch, these words by Kagan were excerpted:

[Writing about a recent visit by Kagan to Iraq]

But to my amazement, we also saw children in those streets who did not glare or run or stand dourly as the occupiers passed. Instead they smiled and waved, asking for candy or just saying hello. Even in the worst places in Iraq, we have not lost the children. They still look to us with hope. They still expect us to deliver them from death and violence. They still believe that we will honor our commitments to their parents.

Greg Djerejian comments:

Dear readers, this cheap adolescent drivel was written by one of the key architects of the surge. These are the basic intellectual parameters being brought to bear in terms of policy-making assumptions regarding the war (we haven't lost the children yet!). And this is what passes for "analysis" in the Weekly Standard, that is to say, Murdochian propaganda masquerading as maudlin cri de coeur. Be afraid, be very afraid.

This is faith-based adventurism, little more...

posted by Quiddity at 5/19/2007 02:26:00 PM