Saturday, June 25, 2005
Karl Rove Must Die!
Hold on...I don't really think he should die, but one stupid statement deserves another.
Let's examine exactly what Rove said. The Washington Post reprints his statement in its entirely. I reprint the part that has caused all the trouble:
"But perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban; in the wake of 9/11, liberals believed it was time to… submit a petition. I am not joking. Submitting a petition is precisely what Moveon.org did. It was a petition imploring the powers that be to 'use moderation and restraint in responding to the… terrorist attacks against the United States.'
I don't know about you, but moderation and restraint is not what I felt as I watched the Twin Towers crumble to the earth; a side of the Pentagon destroyed; and almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens perish in flames and rubble.
Moderation and restraint is not what I felt - and moderation and restraint is not what was called for. It was a moment to summon our national will - and to brandish steel.
MoveOn.Org, Michael Moore and Howard Dean may not have agreed with this, but the American people did. Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said: we will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said: we must understand our enemies. Conservatives see the United States as a great nation engaged in a noble cause; liberals see the United States and they see … Nazi concentration camps, Soviet gulags, and the killing fields of Cambodia.
Has there been a more revealing moment this year than when Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, speaking on the Senate floor, compared what Americans had done to prisoners in our control at Guantanamo Bay with what was done by Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot - three of the most brutal and malevolent figures in the 20th century?
Let me put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts to the region the words of Senator Durbin, certainly putting America's men and women in uniform in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."
Rove precipitated his Manhattan speech with these comments on MSNBC's "Scarborough Country."
"They are dominated today by sort of the MoveOn.org wing of the Democratic Party, you know, the Howard Deans, the Dick Durbins, the MoveOn.org, the Michael Moores, and saying outrageous things like this. I don't know. I don't understand. Remember, MoveOn.org, in the aftermath of 9-11, ran a huge petition drive, a big ad in The New York Times and other newspapers, asking for us to have understanding and tolerance of the Taliban and discouraging any violent response to 9-11. This just shows how out of touch these people are. And when someone takes to the floor of the United States Senate and says that the men and women serving at Guantánamo are equivalent to the Nazis, the Stalinists and the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, murderers, it's pretty remarkably tone deaf."
With the entirely of Rove's dribble now out in the open, let's remind ourselves of a few facts.
Let's examine exactly what Rove said. The Washington Post reprints his statement in its entirely. I reprint the part that has caused all the trouble:
"But perhaps the most important difference between conservatives and liberals can be found in the area of national security. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. In the wake of 9/11, conservatives believed it was time to unleash the might and power of the United States military against the Taliban; in the wake of 9/11, liberals believed it was time to… submit a petition. I am not joking. Submitting a petition is precisely what Moveon.org did. It was a petition imploring the powers that be to 'use moderation and restraint in responding to the… terrorist attacks against the United States.'
I don't know about you, but moderation and restraint is not what I felt as I watched the Twin Towers crumble to the earth; a side of the Pentagon destroyed; and almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens perish in flames and rubble.
Moderation and restraint is not what I felt - and moderation and restraint is not what was called for. It was a moment to summon our national will - and to brandish steel.
MoveOn.Org, Michael Moore and Howard Dean may not have agreed with this, but the American people did. Conservatives saw what happened to us on 9/11 and said: we will defeat our enemies. Liberals saw what happened to us and said: we must understand our enemies. Conservatives see the United States as a great nation engaged in a noble cause; liberals see the United States and they see … Nazi concentration camps, Soviet gulags, and the killing fields of Cambodia.
Has there been a more revealing moment this year than when Democratic Senator Richard Durbin, speaking on the Senate floor, compared what Americans had done to prisoners in our control at Guantanamo Bay with what was done by Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot - three of the most brutal and malevolent figures in the 20th century?
Let me put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts to the region the words of Senator Durbin, certainly putting America's men and women in uniform in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."
Rove precipitated his Manhattan speech with these comments on MSNBC's "Scarborough Country."
"They are dominated today by sort of the MoveOn.org wing of the Democratic Party, you know, the Howard Deans, the Dick Durbins, the MoveOn.org, the Michael Moores, and saying outrageous things like this. I don't know. I don't understand. Remember, MoveOn.org, in the aftermath of 9-11, ran a huge petition drive, a big ad in The New York Times and other newspapers, asking for us to have understanding and tolerance of the Taliban and discouraging any violent response to 9-11. This just shows how out of touch these people are. And when someone takes to the floor of the United States Senate and says that the men and women serving at Guantánamo are equivalent to the Nazis, the Stalinists and the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot, murderers, it's pretty remarkably tone deaf."
With the entirely of Rove's dribble now out in the open, let's remind ourselves of a few facts.
- MoveOn.org ran no advertising in the wake of the September 11 attacks. It released nothing between April 2001 and late 2002. When it began advertising again, that advertising was related to the illegal war in Iraq (which had absolutely nothing to do with September 11). You can see for yourself their press archive and their advertising archive.
- Michael Moore's only books or films on the subject or terrorism were released in 2002 and beyond, well after the actual September 11 attack. In those books, he criticized the administration's decision to ignore the warning signs, President Bush's complete lack of action on the day of the attacks, and the war in Iraq (again, a complete diverson).
- Howard Dean didn't even begin campaigning (or criticizing Bush) until he left the Vermont Governor's mansion in 2002. Like Moore (and other people who can see past GOP rhetoric), he was critical of Bush's lack of action before and on September 11 and the diversionary war in Iraq.
- Dick Durbin was, at least in part, right. Some of our tactics in Gitmo are the same tactics used by Hitler, Stalin, and other deadly regimes. The basis for his comments was an undisputed FBI report.
- The only people coddling terrorists are Rove's Republicans. It is this administration that is actually providing psychiatrists (a.k.a. therapy) to terror suspects.
