When The Facts Change, He Changes His Underwear
Here’s the latest from Richard Miniter, author of ‘Shadow War: The Untold Story of How Bush Is Winning the War on Terror,’ and Pajamas Media’s Washington Editor:
Above: Miniter
Senator John McCain writes about his recent trip to Iraq in the Washington Post—and is greeted by crickets.
McCain is actually acting like a statesman. He deserves to be commended, not ignored. His willingness to take on the congressional and media consensus shows guts and reveals character.
He was critical of the implementation of the war earlier and, based on direct experience there, now sees reasons for cautious optimism. When the facts change, he changes his mind.
Now let’s see if the media have the same ability.
Actually no, here’s the very latest that just came in from Richard Miniter:
Breaking: Present At The Bombing
Richard Miniter, PJM Washington editor, was at the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad when it was bombed this morning killing 8 and injuring over 20.
In this exclusive report he describes the carnage, the aftermath, and what led up to it, including the fact that two suicide vests were discovered inside the Green Zone on April 1, with a resulting, if unsuccessful, search for others.
We don’t want to be all life-lesson with Mr. Miniter here, but the discovery of suicide vests inside the Green Zone on the very day of McCain’s famous market stroll is what you’d ordinarily call ‘a clue.’ Specifically, to Miniter, it ought to have been a far-advanced, way-down-the-line, gratuitously Providential i-dotting and t-crossing clue, furnished as though by a lovingly watchful God, that the days of pumping positive stories from Baghdad while archly baiting the working media are the stuff of dream-clover and memory for right-wing journalists at this particular point in history.
It must’ve been nice while it lasted, but those who stick with the program risk ending up like Jules Crittenden, who will one day be allowed out of his cell only for de-lousing and dental visits. Even Michelle Malkin, the most persistent of all badgery-creatures, has stopped talking about Iraq, and now focuses wisely on attacking war critics and ethnic minorities.
Apparently, though, the lesson wasn’t enough, because it took a bomb actually blowing the hell up in his very presence to turn the flummoxically self-serious Miniter into an Iraq-security skeptic.
U.S. military personnel filled in additional details. The American soldiers asked not to be cited by name, because they are not authorized to give statements to the press. Two suicide vests were discovered inside the Green Zone on April 1, setting off a massive search for additional bombs, I was told. It is possible, a corporal said, that the vests were smuggled in weeks earlier and the bomber was told where to find the hidden cache.
Ooh, ooh, is one of the unidentified soldiers U.S. military spokesman Rear Admiral Mark Fox? Because this story is from twelve days ago.
No one here has any confidence in Iraqi security, which is responsible for maintaining security around the convention center.
[…]
It is unlikely that the bomber acted alone. He would need help to penetrate several layers of security to get inside the Green Zone. The question that hung in the air: Was his accomplice among the sweating suits being escorted out or was he one of the guards?
“He would of been a good man,” some wag might one day say of Miniter, “If it had been somebody there to blow something up in front of him every minute of his life.”
has that guy ever left the Green Zone? I imagine he’s on his way home now.
Damn….all this and an O’Conner reference too. Gavin, just stop, you make me swoon!
I’d have been a good girl, if’n sumone was there to remind me ev’ry moment of my life. Maybe.
Miniter likes those Limbaugh dick-substitute cigars too, huh? Nice image. Very photogenic for a pasty, doughy, white asshole (the man, not the orifice).
would of? Ok
Sometimes a cigar is just a penis … cigar! Cigar! What did I say?
Iraqis are keep having death
Bombs keep on bursting
Nothing makes them stop
This surge thing is not working
“Nobody ever anticipated you’d have perfect security inside Baghdad,” Gates said.
Except this was, you know, the Green Zone.
Can you imagine what would happen if a bomb went off on Capitol Hill? Would we claim DC was secure? That we were making progress?
Success in Iraq has always hinged on the Iraqi government eventually being able to provide security for its people, and that has been the biggest failure of this whole exercise.
flummoxically
I’m keeping this, ok? [Puts flummoxically in pocket, walks casually away whistling]
mikey
What is it with naive, ideological gasbags that draws them towards cigars, draped flags, and shit eater grins?
He looks like Kirk’s do-nothing, tailcoat riding evil twin.
Let’s not go overboard on the being near to a deadly explosion makes you slightly more human theory.
Cheney didn’t exactly change after his visit to Afghanistan.
Then again, being alive only because of being able to afford the benefits of our medical system didn’t seem to change his views on health care, either, as it does most conservatives.
What is it with naive, ideological gasbags that draws them towards cigars, draped flags, and shit eater grins?
And what is it with these wingnutty flag-wavers that they treat the flag worse than a dirty rag, flinging it over some filthy rail as though it were just a decoration, against all standards of flag etiquette?
I dunno about the “makes you more human” part. But it is worth noting that if people actively and aggressively try to kill you, especially if they succeed in killing people around you, you are never going to be the same person you were before.
There’s something about looking that closely into the maw of oblivion, and especially about getting splattered with its by-products that forces you, in a nanosecond, to re-examine everything you thought you knew, and everything you thought you thought.
Some people come to understand the value of the human community. Some people just learn how to focus their hatred. But it’s a door – you go thru it, you never can go back…
mikey
Who photoshopped Miniter’s head and gigar onto Janet Reno’s body?
Tigrismus, really man, why do conservatives hate our flag? Your link does not work for me but here’s an alternate picture.
I knew that background looked familiar and that I had previously seen some doughy rightwing douchebag in front of it before. It was in a great post that the good Glenn did on James Taranto and his apparent self perception as a hard man.
Oh Lawnguylander, they don’t hate it, they just lurve it so much that they think it makes a really good snot rag, diaper, or ass-patch on their jeans. But nobody better burn one, that’s so disrespectful!
What is it with naive, ideological gasbags that draws them towards cigars, draped flags, and shit eater grins?
I think the winger preference for cigars is partly based on the fact that the good ones are all laboriously hand-rolled by underpaid brown people. They’re also ostentatious, expensive, require little effort to use, and clearly scent-mark the territory.
nice closing quote from that literary classic, the wingnuttery
Miniter strikes me as less Animal Mother and more Pvt. Pyle.
J—, paraphrasing La Tour… eeeevil!1!!
Marq, putting a “keep” where there should be a “still” . . . dunderheaded!
It’s good to see you in the comments again.
“Very photogenic for a pasty, doughy, white asshole…”
In essence, Rove-like.
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