Point in common, among others, is the Big Lie technique.
Henninger, WSJ columnist, has an op-ed today entitled "Democrats Knifed Lieberman on Eve of Airliner Plot."
"That was unfortunate timing this week for the Lamont Democrats ... [blah blah blah] ... Yes, we know, they support the war on terror but are merely against George Bush's war in Iraq. How does that work?"
Then more nonsense in the same vein.
Henninger must realize that the U.S. intelligence establishment sees no positive contribution of the war in Iraq to fighting terrorism - indeed, the contribution is massively negative. But this is less important than dishonestly stoking fear in the desperate effort to avoid the reckoning this November.
One amusing aspect of the recent debate has been the back and forth about whether the Democrats are discredited peaceniks as in the Vietnam era.
Hello? Does anyone really think we should have stayed in Vietnam past 1975?
UPDATE: The "unfortunate timing" was absolutely no coincidence. I had immediately thought of this possibility - deliberate timing to make the Democrats look bad right after the primary - but dismissed it, given that the Brits were involved, even though the plot had apparently been under surveillance for more than a year.
But now we learn the following from NBC News:
"A senior British official knowledgeable about the case said British police were planning to continue to run surveillance for at least another week to try to obtain more evidence, while American officials pressured them to arrest the suspects sooner. The official spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the case.
"In contrast to previous reports, the official suggested an attack was not imminent, saying the suspects had not yet purchased any airline tickets. In fact, some did not even have passports."
Why bother with an extra week of surveillance that might yield valuable added information when there's an opportunity to embarrass the Democrats, and sleazy hacks like Daniel Henninger are waiting to pounce?
Typically thoughtful post, but you need to remember Godwin's Law, i.e., that the first person who plays the Hitler card, loses. See:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
True enough; my temper got the most of me.
ReplyDeleteBut I do find it amusing that, in the 1960s, people on the left made what I think were totally unjustified accusations about fascism, etc. The result was to discredit it this time around, when the accusations would be dead on accurate.