Blood pressure buster: Bill Kristol's latest, "They Don't Really Support the Troops"

[Faygo Kid]

Coming up in the July 30 Weekly Standard, Kristol continues ratcheting up the hate against those who oppose HIS war. He cites an unresolved controversy to smear each and every person who opposes the war and wants the troops to live and come home. Excerpts:

". . .With the ongoing progress of the surge, and the obvious fact that the vast majority of the troops want to fight and win the war, the "support-the-troops-but-oppose-what-they're-doing" position has become increasingly untenable. How can you say with a straight face that you support the troops while advancing legislation that would undercut their mission and strengthen their enemies?

You can't. So those on the cutting edge of progressive opinion are beginning to give up on even pretending to support the troops. Instead, they now slander the troops. . .

. . .Having turned against a war that some of them supported, the left is now turning against the troops they claim still to support. They sense that history is progressing away from them--that these soldiers, fighting courageously in a just cause, could still win the war, that they are proud of their service, and that they will be future leaders of this country. They are not "Shock Troops." They are our best and bravest, fighting for all of us against a brutal enemy in a difficult and frustrating war. They are the 9/11 generation. The left slanders them. We support them. More than that, we admire them." http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/901rhkhq.asp

As Arianna noted, "The charitable view is that he's lost his mind. The less charitable view is that he's now officially surpassed Dick Cheney as the most intellectually dishonest member of the neocon establishment (the highest of all high bars)." I would take it a step further - the guy is setting the stage to call for quashing dissent, by calling it slander. Keep an eye on this guy; the louder he gets, the closer we get to attacking Iran.

[supernova]

1. Somebody please medicate Bill Kristol!

And put him and us out of our collective misery.

[regnaD kciN]

2. The charitable view is that he lost his mind some time ago...

...at least before the beginning of the war, when he pompously lectured George Stephanopolous as to how there was no reason to trust the West's condescending and racist belief that Iraq's Sunnis and Shi'ites would have problems getting along after their "liberation." :eyes:

[Faygo Kid]

9. Point well taken. He thought Sunnis/Shiites would get along. Now, they aren't even relevant.

Now, Kristol is a leader of the New Argument For The War: We are fighting Al-Qaeda, and there IS no civil war in Iraq (check out Limbaugh's website. As painful as it is, that's the argument). Are they challenged? Just here. The "fact" that we are fighting Al-Qaeda in Iraq will be the justification for the war, and it won't be new. What do you mean, that wasn't always the justification? WMDs, or Democracy to Iraq? Who ever claimed that?

[Unreconstructed Lib]

3. "...the obvious fact that the vast majority of the troops want to fight and win the war...."

Didn't Webb just call Graham out on this phony justification for staying in Iraq? I suppose it's just like the Republicans to hammer the point even harder, now. What's that they say about a lie told often enough becoming the truth?

[Wetzelbill]

5. yes he did

It's placing a person's own political argument into the mouths of "the troops." Polls say the troops are questioning this war just as much as any of us. It's not that they don't want to win, technically they already did win, but they are wondering what the hell we are still doing there and if it is worth it. Basically, the guy is claiming to speak for our military people on the ground, by using his own opinions and stuffing it in the mouths of soldiers who don't even advocate his position.

[aquart]

7. If the soldiers were FOR the war, they wouldn't have had to 'cage' their votes.

[ClassWarrior]

4. More like a yawner.

But that Marvin Gaye album is awesome.

NGU.

[kenny blankenship]

6. I look forward to his trial for treason

[neverforget]

8. Indeed Kenny!

[nealmhughes]

10. Has anyone else noticed the most welcome absence from the airwaves of late of

The Genius of the Crimea, Ariel Cohen, "Dr. The war will be easy and the oil will pay for everything?"

Maybe Bill and his atrocious parents should move to a retirement village near Boca Raton and just play shuffleboard and keep thier yaps shut.