Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

The media struggles in good faith to respect our troops, but too often it merely pities them. I am generalizing, of course. Indeed, there are regular, stellar exceptions, quite often in the most prominent liberal publications, from our best military correspondents. But exceptions don't quite cut it amidst the barrage of "news," which too often descends into therapy for those who are not fighting, rather than matter-of-fact stories related by those who are.

As one battalion commander complained to me, in words repeated by other soldiers and marines: "Has anyone noticed that we now have a volunteer Army? I'm a warrior. It's my job to fight." Every journalist has a different network of military contacts. Mine come at me with the following theme: We want to be admired for our technical proficiency--for what we do, not for what we suffer. We are not victims. We are privileged.

-- ROBERT D. KAPLAN

Does a dissenter cause the death of American soldiers by voicing an opinion? It was surely unpatriotic for some to collude with the communist enemy during the Vietnam War, and allege phony atrocities under oath (ahem, thinking of of a former presidential candidate here). That's called "spreading enemy propaganda."

But what about ordinary people of good faith, who love their country, simply expressing an opinion that a particular war is not worth the loss of life? I thought that the soldiers were fighting precisely for our freedom to express that opinion.

Rather than dissenters, I would think it's the insurgents who are killing the soldiers. But if you really want to blame someone besides them, why trace it to dissenters? What about the people who support the war? Soldiers wouldn't die in wars if they never started. But no, that's also silly, of course — war supporters who act in good faith aren't causing deaths either.

-- DAVID FREDDOSO

Without suggesting any moral equivalence (obviously), al-Qaeda and the United States can be seen as having had a race in Iraq over who would most thoroughly alienate the Sunni tribes. We got off to an early lead as foreign occupiers who had made possible the rise of Shiite rule and — in response to the insurgency — killed and captured young tribesmen. But al-Qaeda eventually lapped us several times over. The Sunni sheiks may not like foreigner occupiers, but they especially don’t like foreign occupiers who assassinate their leaders, insist on marrying their daughters, commit unspeakable acts of brutality, and prevent them from smoking and drinking.

We had entered Iraq as a radical force. When we allied with the tribes, we became a more conservative force, protecting the tribal way of life from those who would overturn and repress it. This turnabout — so crucial a part of the success of the surge — doesn’t neatly fit into President Bush’s freedom agenda.

-- RICH LOWRY

There is so much turnover [at the White House] that on one recent Friday there were four farewell parties or last-day exits. [President] Bush poses for so many Oval Office photos with departing aides it feels like an assembly line. Officials said the transition is a function of so many aides having stayed longer than in past White Houses. "When you look at the people who are leaving, these are people who have been here since the beginning," said Liza Wright, who herself left last month as White House personnel director. "And it's a killer of a job."

All the more so in a White House beset by an intractable war, a hostile Congress, a shipwrecked domestic agenda and near-historic-low approval ratings. The long-term ideals that many of them came to the White House to pursue appear jeopardized, even discredited to many. They tell themselves that they have acted on principle, that the decisions they helped make will be vindicated. But they cannot be sure.

"There's this overriding awareness that we're living and acting for the judgment of history," said William Inboden, who resigned last month as senior director for strategic planning at the National Security Council.

And as history judges, Iraq is always there. "It constantly looms," he said. "It is the inescapable presence, the inescapable reality. You see it in all these ways. People. Time. Money. Diplomatic and political capital. It sort of becomes the reality you live with and obviously we have to be able to."

-- PETER BAKER

A note: I have used this photo several times because it
evokesgood feelings. Anybody know who the trooper is?