It's Bob Schieffer's commentary from today. It's posted here. Here it is complete.
That really is a lame excuse. Tony Snow should be ashamed.I am still not sure that I believe it: The Iraqi parliament is going on vacation during the month of August.
The White House offers the lame excuse that, after all, Baghdad is hot in August – sometimes 130 degrees.
May I ask a follow-up?
How much hotter do you suppose it is if you are a wearing a helmet, full body armor, carrying ammunition and walking foot patrols through Baghdad?
The last I heard, that is how American troops are spending their August in Iraq.
For me, this does it.God help the Iraqi people because there is not much America can do to help a government that leaves Americans dying in the streets while the parliament escapes to cooler climes. Does this mean we should pull out immediately?
No. A sudden withdrawal could set the entire region aflame. The truth is there are no good options left. But from here on, we need to put aside the dream of building a democracy in Iraq and focus solely on what is in our national interest.
It won't be pretty, but for all our good intentions, about all we can do now is try to contain this mess, pull our troops back from the middle of this civil war, and concentrate instead on the terrorist threat that this country faces around the world. As for what kind of government Iraq needs, let their parliament figure it out. They can get right on it when the Baghdad weather turns cooler.
2 comments:
Schieffer is an honest guy, and one of the few journalists left that has integrity. But what makes this amazing is that Schieffer has ties t to the Bush family.
His brother was a big supporter of W. He got appointed to an ambassadorship in W's first term. They're all from Texas, and they go way back.
But, like I said, Schieffer is an honest guy and will call it as he sees it. That makes him a journalist unlike the Bush administration apologists like O'Reilly over at Fox News.
Schieffer is indeed one of the last of a dying breed; old school journalists for which that word can be aptly applied. He is not "talent," or "an anchor;" he is a a news man.
He got better ratings than Katie, and my guess has always been that he would have gotten better ratings than Rather, too. People are yearning for his type of honest, straightforward approach, and his depth of knowledge. Indeed, it is exactly that style (faux in his case) that is making Fred Thompson such a viable option for the GOP.
Funny thing is, I heard a story about the Parliament going on summer vacation the other day and I asked myself this question: "Have the Iraqis finally learned how to run a "Western-style democracy," since they are now taking after George "I'm on vacation" Bush?
Pilt
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