Thursday, March 28, 2024
Miles from the Mainstream
D. R. ZUKERMAN, proprietor
On Howard Kurtz and Iraq

APRIL 2, 2004 --

Washington Post media correspondent Howard Kurtz criticized the Air America debut -- suggesting it was a bit heavy-handed and preached to the choir. Is this just an exercise to convince us that the mainmedia are not water carriers for the left?

Previously, that is to say, in the report of the joint Congressional iInquiry on the performance of the intelligence community on terrorism before and after 9/11, Richard Clarke was quoted as saying that the FBI had been "Clueless" on counter-terrorism. Now, isn't he saying that had President Bush listened to him, 9/11 would not have happened?

Maybe the Iraqis who mutilated the bodies of four Americans in Fallujah should not have posed gloatingly for the cameras.

Presidential political campaign critics of the Bush policy on Iraq, including Washington Post columnist David S.

Broder, have refrained from referring to the statement that Secretary of State Colin Powell gave in the United Nations Security Council, a month before the 2003 invasion, setting forth the reasons why the U.S. will, if necessary, use force against Saddam Hussein. But Mr. Broder was not wrong to say that the White House caved in to pressure to permit National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice to appear under oath before the 9/11 commission (where Democratic Commissioners Gorelick and Ben-Veniste, among others, are likely to insinuate that President Bush let 9/11 happen.) Perhaps we will also hear that gas prices are at such high levels because Saudi Arabia has little respect for the Bush Administration and that OPEC would not have raised prices if we acted a bit more multilaterally.

Federalist No. 62 concludes with the counsel that to be respected, government must be "truly respectable" and this, in turn, requires "possessing a certain portion of order and stability."