Such smugness, arrogance ...such insufferable moral superiority.

[Ned]

"In all my time in Washington I've never seen such smugness, arrogance, or such insufferable moral superiority. Self-congratulatory. Full of itself. Horrible."

Bill Bennet's opinion about the Iraq Surrender Report commissioners. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-...posts?page=101


Clearly, Secretary Baker (and his sponsor, Bush '41) have lost or are losing favor with the Right. But, Bush owes Baker a lot -- his election. What is he to do now? Say FU to Baker and implicity to his dad? What a pickle!

[SlowwHand]

Perhaps the most systemic problem with the report is it didn't tell us how to win; it answered how to get out. The commissioners answered the wrong question, but it was the one they wanted to answer.

Leaving isn't a problem.

[MRT144]

bill bennet can go suck on a lemon

[Seeker]

"In all my time in Washington I've never seen such smugness, arrogance, or such insufferable moral superiority. Self-congratulatory. Full of itself. Horrible"

OKAAAAY.......this dude must've had his hands over his eyes, his ears stuffed with cotton, noseplugs in, and suffering from the worst case of cranialrectal impaction I've seen in YEARS if the Baker commission report was the smuggest thing he's seen in Washington....

[Dauphin]

I was hoping this thread was going to be about a certain Poly poster.

[KrazyHorse]

Who could that be?

[Dauphin]

Maybe we need a poll......

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Dauphin
Maybe we need a poll......

[MRT144]

asher, agathon, krazyhorse?

[Dr Strangelove]

The report mirrors the sentiment of the American public, so evidently Bill Bennett considers us smug, arrogant and insufferably morally superior. Furthermore most of us haven't been ouitside of the Green Zone. Maybe what Bill Bennett wants for America is something akin to the government of Starship Troopers.

[Drogue]

I don't see what he's ranting at. Yes, a statement like:

James Baker opened his thoughts today by saying Iraqis “have been liberated from the nightmare of a tyrannical order only to face the nightmare of brutal violence.” So much for any moral distinction between a terrorist sponsoring dictatorship and an embattled, weak, effort toward self-government. The distinction between permanent darkness and days of light and darkness both, and a hope for dawn was lost.

does only have a slight moral disctinction - the one between tyrannical, a statement of why there is violence, and brutal, a statement that only shows the magnitude of the violence. Surely if the statement is so absurd, you'd find out where it's wrong. Yes, there is a difference between a tyrannical dictatorship and a weak government trying to develop. It's called anarchy, and as all civ players know, it happens every time you change governments. The report is exactly right in that we've gone from a tyrannical dictatorship to anarchy.

Originally posted by Dauphin
Maybe we need a poll......

[MrFun]

From the thread title, I thought this was going to be about Ned admitting to his own serious flaws.

[loinburger]

Perhaps the most systemic problem with the report is it didn't tell us how to win; it answered how to get out.

As if "send more troops into Iraq" would have been a more viable answer than "withdraw some/all of the troops from Iraq."

"Hey, tell us how to win this war!"
"Send in more troops."
"No no no, the public will never buy into that."
"Well, then you can't win the war, better pull out and cut your losses."
"What kind of defeatist attitude is that? You clearly don't support our troops / are weak on terror / think you know more than the soldiers who aren't asking for more support / whatever other political catchphrase fits the bill!"

I forgot about this gem...

For a report to identify the outside agitators (which happen to also be the worst terrorist-sponsoring states in the world — Iran & Syria) as “provid[ing] arms, financial support, and training for Shiite militias within Iraq,” i.e., fomenting war, and then say we should negotiate and offer incentives to those countries is simply too much to bear.

"Diplomacy? Diplomacy??? Unthinkable! Nuke it from orbit!"

[Dr Strangelove]

Originally posted by loinburger

" Nuke it from orbit!"

HEY! That's illegal! You'll get in trouble with the U.N.!

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Smugness, arrogance, and insufferable moral superioty are all pretty good descriptions of the public posture of Bill "I preach old-fashioned self-discipline for others but have a huge gambling problem" Bennett.

Do people really still take him seriously?