Taliban taunts Cheney
I'm working again this week so I'm just getting to the news. What a day it's been out there in the greater world. The Dow crashed. A bunch of kids playing soccer died in Iraq and it's not clear who killed them. Baghdad residents are complaining innocent people are being terrorized by the "security" surge. And the Taliban took credit for an attack on the biggest US military base in Afghanistan, saying Dick Cheney -- who made an unscheduled stop -- was their target.
The reports vary wildly but it's clear that a pretty big bomb went off and killed a bunch of people. As assassination attempts go, this one was pretty lame. One assumes an assassin would have to get through much more than one gate to get to wherever the Veep might be. It's clear Cheney was never in physical danger but the real concern is that they knew Cheney was there. In an administration renowned for its secrecy, it doesn't bode well that they couldn't keep this secret. It serves as a grim reminder of how tentative our hold on Afghanistan still is.
Meanwhile, I couldn't bring myself to read more than the blurb, but I see Ms. Malkin has already grabbed her megaphone and is screeching herself hoarse about how this is an attack on all America. I wonder what she proposes to do about it? Bomb them again and destroy the government we installed? Or bomb Pakistan for harboring the Taliban? If you've got the stomach to read her, let me know what she said.
The White House is taking a more tempered approach, attempting to minimize the incident as an isolated attack. One suspects they would prefer people forget that they've been touting Afghanistan as a success story and are hoping that no one considers in light of the rise of the Taliban and al Qaeda there, that maybe if we were going to surge some troops, it should have been to where we know the terrorists are -- on the Afghan-Pakistani border -- rather than throw them into the middle of a civil war in Iraq.
The reports vary wildly but it's clear that a pretty big bomb went off and killed a bunch of people. As assassination attempts go, this one was pretty lame. One assumes an assassin would have to get through much more than one gate to get to wherever the Veep might be. It's clear Cheney was never in physical danger but the real concern is that they knew Cheney was there. In an administration renowned for its secrecy, it doesn't bode well that they couldn't keep this secret. It serves as a grim reminder of how tentative our hold on Afghanistan still is.
Meanwhile, I couldn't bring myself to read more than the blurb, but I see Ms. Malkin has already grabbed her megaphone and is screeching herself hoarse about how this is an attack on all America. I wonder what she proposes to do about it? Bomb them again and destroy the government we installed? Or bomb Pakistan for harboring the Taliban? If you've got the stomach to read her, let me know what she said.
The White House is taking a more tempered approach, attempting to minimize the incident as an isolated attack. One suspects they would prefer people forget that they've been touting Afghanistan as a success story and are hoping that no one considers in light of the rise of the Taliban and al Qaeda there, that maybe if we were going to surge some troops, it should have been to where we know the terrorists are -- on the Afghan-Pakistani border -- rather than throw them into the middle of a civil war in Iraq.
Labels: Afghanistan, Cheney, Iraq
posted by Libby Spencer at 6:42 PM
4 Comments:
Forget that it didn't succeed. The fact that the attack was even planned and executed says volumes about how the situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated.
The legions at Malkin are upset because some 'moonbats' made disparaging comments about our VP. MM also has her panties twisted because an attack on our VP is an attack on America and apple pie and puppies. Nevermind that 19 died in the Cheney PR attack and 18 soccer kids in Iraq died, they tried to kill Cheney (Bush 41).
"Just after dawn on Tuesday morning, reporters were taken to the mess hall, where Cheney was dining with the troops. "How was breakfast?" a reporter yelled to the VP. "Breakfast was excellent," Cheney replied, in what were his first three words to the press pool traveling with him on the trip, now in its eighth day."
Kvatch - that's my take.
Rudi - thanks for the update. I just couldn't go over there and read her. I see Hugh Hewitt also jumped on that bandwagon, handpicking a few wacko comments from a HuffPo thread and pretending it represents leftie blogger's opinions.
Nolo - for some reason, that makes me want to lose my breakfast. How much more removed from the real world can this guy get?
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