Compare and Contrast

Sometimes, when the stars are situated just right (...when the Moon is in the seventh house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars...) the Trib and the P-G both editorialize on the same subject.

Such as it is today, though it's surprising to see what the Trib say that the P-G don't. The subject this time, The President's recent Oval Office speech.

First the P-G:

President Barack Obama delivered an important speech Tuesday night, from the Oval Office as befitting the occasion. His address to the nation closed the door on the Iraq war, praised the U.S. forces who waged it and stated that the "central mission" of the American people, and he as president, is now to restore the health and vigor of the American economy.

Oddly, while the comments the P-G editorial board has about the war itself are remarkably middle of the road:

Now at least the Iraq part is on the way to going away, as Mr. Obama promised during his campaign. He pointed out that the two wars have cost the United States at least a trillion dollars and left tragic numbers of dead and severely damaged veterans.

He paid tribute to the men and women who paid the price for the partly politically motivated, unwise Iraq war, and he pledged that the country would do its best to do right by them with a GI education bill and postwar care. [emphasis added]

The Trib's editorial's comments (well some of them) warm this balding lib'rul's heart:

President Barack Obama on Tuesday officially declared the United States' combat mission in Iraq over. He didn't so much prosecute the war that this nation never should have started as he did manage the American withdrawal. He gave a left-handed tip of the hat to former President George W. Bush, who, forced to confront the enormity of his administration's miscalculations, had to mount a "surge" to quell all those greeting us as "liberators." [emphases added]

Look at that. While the P-G rightly calls the war "politically motivated" and "unwise," the Trib goes further and says that it's a war "this nation should never have started" (so we DID start it! so it WASN'T a retaliation!) and that there were "enormous" miscalculations by the former President.

Not only that, but did you catch the whiff of sarcasm in the description of the surge (note the use of ironic quotation marks around the word liberators - that explains everything).

To be fair (and I am nothing if not fair) this particular line is nothing new from the Trib. Take a look at this piece of treason from 2007:

Perhaps Jack Murtha put it best: The Pennsylvania congressman, among the first to make the cogent argument that staying the course in Iraq was the exercise in futility that indeed the war has become, says President Bush is delusional.

Based on the president's recent performance, we could not agree more. "Staying the course" is not simply futile -- it is a prescription for American suicide.

We've urged for months to bring our troops home. Now is the time.[italics in original]

The Trib said that Bush was delusional in 2007? Wait wait, it gets better:

And quite frankly, during last Thursday's news conference, when George Bush started blathering about "sometimes the decisions you make and the consequences don't enable you to be loved," we had to question his mental stability.

I am not making this up. The Tribune-Review questioned George W Bush' mental stability in 2007.

So next time someone posts a rhetorical question on their facebook page (Hey, Dimitri - how's it going?) asking whether the War in Iraq was worth it, we can now all give a hearty hell no and then happily add that the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review agrees.

Has so for a long long time.