Quotes du Jour on the Various Wars

Americans are very frustrated, and they have every right to be. We've wasted a lot of our most precious treasure, which is American lives.

-- JOHN McCAIN, 2/28/07

I should have used the word "sacrificed."

-- JOHN McCAIN, 3/1/07

There were so many reasons to be appalled by President Bush’s decision to detain people illegally and subject them to mental and physical abuse. The unfolding case of Jose Padilla reminds us of one of the most important: mistreating a prisoner makes it hard, if not impossible, for a real court to judge whether he has committed real crimes. . . .

We will probably never know if Mr. Padilla was a would-be terrorist. So far, this trial has been a reminder of how Mr. Bush’s policy on prisoners has compromised the judicial process. And it has confirmed the world’s suspicions of the United States’ stooping to the very behavior it once stood against.

-- THE NEW YORK TIMES

You notice that there has been very little activity by the Sadrists in the past six weeks, despite major provocation with bomb attacks and assassinations, kidnappings, that have happened frequently—yet they have not responded. That is a significant factor. This outcome did not happen in a vacuum. There was major effort to persuade the Sadrists. Many people participated in it. There were feted meetings with the mayor of Sadr City—who is not part of the Sadrist movement of the Mahdi Army, but he has authority from them to pursue these meetings — and the multinational force, and political officers from the embassy.

-- AHMED CHALABI

Given all of this country’s past wars involving intelligence failures, tactical and strategic blunders, congressional fights and popular anger at the president, Iraq and the rising furor over it are hardly unusual. . . .

The high-stakes war to stabilize the fragile democracy in Iraq is a serious, costly and controversial business. But so have been most conflicts in American history. We need a little more humility and knowledge of our past — and a lot less hysteria, name-calling and obsession with our present selves.

-- VICTOR DAVIS HANSON

Top officials at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, including the Army's surgeon general, have heard complaints about outpatient neglect from family members, veterans groups and members of Congress for more than three years.

A procession of Pentagon and Walter Reed officials expressed surprise last week about the living conditions and bureaucratic nightmares faced by wounded soldiers staying at the D.C. medical facility. But as far back as 2003, the commander of Walter Reed, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, who is now the Army's top medical officer, was told that soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan were languishing and lost on the grounds.

-- THE WASHINGTON POST

It has an appealing symmetry. George Bush is deploying a missile defense system that may or may not work to defend against nuclear weapons that might be fired from Iranian secret weapons sites that may or may not exist. This strategy is of a piece with the rest of George Bush’s foreign policy strategies that have produced such successes as, for example, Iraq. . . .

[W]hat the world now knows is that missiles that may not work will end up being deployed to defend against missiles launched from sites that may not exist. It proves, if proof were needed, that George Bush never runs out of ideas for pranks to play on the world. The pranks amuse not only the prankster but the sycophants who consort with him and enjoy playing major roles in George Bush’s Theater of the Absurd. The audience is not amused. It’s terrified.

-- CHRIS BRAUCHLI

Somewhere, deep down, tucked away underneath their loathing for George Bush, in a secret place where the lights of smart dinner-party conversation and clever debating-society repartee never shine, the growing hordes of America-bashers must dread the moment he leaves office.

When President Bush goes into the Texas sunset, and especially if he is replaced by an enlightened, world-embracing Democrat, their one excuse, their sole explanation for all human suffering in the world will disappear too. And they may just find that the world is not as simple as they thought it was.

-- GERALD BAKER