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« Kerry for Hawks | Main | Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow » September 20, 2004A Chance for the PressAfter CBS' desperate attempt to undermine the mainstream media's credibility, Robert Novak has offered up a golden opportunity to demonstrate its value. Novak claims that the Bush administration will pull out of Iraq as soon as the January elections are complete. If that's true, it would represent a disaster (and it would eliminate the best argument President Bush has for reelection). If we leave Iraq without having established ourselves as clear victors, we will spur new terrorists to take up arms against us and will have squandered all that our armed forces have sacrificed. Certainly one of my greatest fears about Kerry is that he will cut and run in Iraq; if President Bush would be no better, Kerry starts looking like a far more viable candidate. Novak's claim is therefore pretty damning, if true. On the other hand, if it's disinformation, it could well be an attempt to harm President Bush's reelection prospects. In either case, getting to the bottom of the claim would be a valuable service, and it's precisely the kind of benefit the media is supposed to offer. Granted, it's not an easy assignment, as there may be no way to prove it one way or the other. But it seems to be precisely the right kind of thing the media should be illuminating: asking a question (preferably of both candidates) about how they will deal with a problem we can be certain whoever wins on November 2 will have to address. So, how about it? Posted at September 20, 2004 08:11 PM
Trackback PingsTrackBack URL for this entry: CommentsBush has said that he intends to see it through to the point that Iraq becames a viable democracy in the Middle East. If he is, in fact, lying I don't know how you'd go about proving it. And as someone points out (can't recall whether it was Wretchard or Glenn Reynolds) the troop deployment has signs of getting larger, rather than smaller, so the only way that makes sense in terms of a "cut and run" is if we do so by way of Tehran. Anyway, I wouldn't trust the press to give us the straight dope on this now. Given Novak's history and his orientation I think we can safely assume it's wishful thinking on his part. Posted by: Demosophist at September 20, 2004 11:56 PM I don't think you can prove the issue one way or the other, which I noted in my post, but I would argue that this is certainly a far more relevant and important issue that the Swiftvets or President Bush's National Guard service, and the press could certainly press both sides to address the question if it so chose. Posted by: Andrew at September 21, 2004 12:50 PM Post a comment |
