Andrew Sullivan scathingly describes Bush’s press conference this morning:
Worse, the president conflated every single radical element in the Middle East into one amorphous anti-American entity. It appears that he sees Shiite militias, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Hamas and the Sunni insurgents as indistinguishable. He has even said baldly that the people bombing and murdering in Iraq are the same people who attacked us on 9/11. The Shiite militias? The Baathist dead-enders? Is he serious? He seems to be still operating under the premise that the fundamental dynamic is one between democracy and radicalism. At some very broad and general level, that’s not wrong. But in terms of forming policy, it’s close to useless. Actually, it’s worse than useless. We have a president who seems unable to understand the critical dynamics of the war he is allegedly waging. Is he capable of understanding the complexity? Does he really think we need another lecture on the evil of al Qaeda? Does he really think that’s what we’re arguing about at this point? …
[W]hen the president speaks spontaneously about the war, he reveals vast amounts of ignorance, denial and deception, self and otherwise. The patronizing soundbites stick in the craw at this point. His formulation that we do not know whether the war can succeed but that it nonetheless must succeed is about as disorienting a leadership call as I have heard. The rank condescension toward the American people is also staggering. Look, Mr President, most Americans aren’t as dim as you seem to be. Maybe it’s time you realized that.
Some people, particularly some gays, still seem to have a visceral hatred of Sullivan, but I like him. His online search for poz-on-poz sex a few years ago is none of my business (and anyway, it takes two people to have unprotected sex). More importantly, I’ve forgiven him for his earlier rah-rahs in favor of Bush – he changed his mind and saw the light sometime in 2004. Even though that was much later than some other people, he’s shown a great capacity for critical self-examination, and I think he’s a brilliant writer. I don’t always agree with him, but I wish I could write as well or as often.
Pingback: University Update - Iraq - Sullivan on Bush
My only real criticism of him WAS his cheerleadering of Bush back in the beginning…here was a man with an ATROCIOUS human rights record, a clear anti-gay and pro-Fundamentalist agenda…and a gay man was promoting him? It’s unacceptable to me that anyone promotes a Republican until that part removes its damaging and quite evil and vicious social agenda from its platform and works to secure freedom for ALL citizens and not seek to push one sects’ views on everyone.
You know, I was almost in concurrence with you. But now he’s all into this free-market nonsense as a healthcare fix, and I have to question his wisdom and his sanity all over again. I just don’t even know what to say to a person who thinks you’re entitled to the best healthcare you can afford. That’s exhibit A for a person who hasn’t even begun to comprehend the crisis at hand.
So what if he’s now come to his senses on Iraq and writes cogently and accurately about it? “To see what is one front of one’s nose requires a constant struggle” is the Orwell quote on his blog banner. Maybe for Republicans, it does, but those of us in the “reality based community” foresaw everything that is happening in Iraq five years ago. Not invading Iraq was a no-brainer. So I give him very little credit for finally embracing the obvious. Hell, even a fruitcake like Ron Paul gets it.