Thursday, August 23, 2007

Gotta know when to fold 'em...yeah, like that'll happen

There is such a wealth, a plethora even, of stuff on Bush's "Return to Vietnam" speech. This one at Time hits the V-ring:

Politically, President Bush has reached the point all gamblers fear: being so far down that higher stakes start to look worth the risk.

In the end, it is the familiarity — critics would say the lack of credibility — of those themes that provide the answer to Bush's risky invocation of Vietnam. He has so often emphasized the disastrous ramifications of failure and the potential glories of victory, they no longer hold the same currency with a war-tired public. So, given how low support for the war is, why not add the specter of Vietnam to the costs of defeat? And why not suggest that victory in Iraq could help expunge the indignity of America's loss in Vietnam? Petraeus and Crocker will say what they will regardless of Bush's assertions, so raising the rhetorical stakes in the hopes of bolstering political support ahead of their report is the only card Bush has left to play.

Give the fucker a deck of cards and some chips and let him lose at Solitaire in the privacy of his own cell instead of killing more and more people for his misguided and failed delusions.

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