JUDITH WARNER: A Crack in Team Bush

[kevinmc]

It was a shock to see Defense Secretary Robert Gates battling tears Wednesday evening as he spoke about Maj. Douglas Zembiec, a Marine and father of a 1-year-old daughter, who was killed in May after requesting a second tour of duty in Iraq.

Shocking and yet somehow profoundly validating and cathartic.

Choking, pausing, visibly suffering and clearly fighting off an onslaught of unwelcome emotion as he addressed the Marine Corps Association’s annual dinner, Gates seemed, for a moment, to tap into national sentiment in a way that the Bush team has never before done.

Sure, they tapped into our anger, fear and hatred in the days and months after 9/11. Sure, their swagger stoked our desires for vengeance and soothed some of the terror that took up residence in our guts in the weeks following the attacks.

But here was something new: an acknowledgment, however unbidden, of the complex range of negative emotions — sadness and frustration and, yes, I think, guilt — that’s now weighing upon the nation’s soul after four disastrous years in Iraq............

http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/07/judith-warner-crack-in-team-bush.html


*********************

Judith Warner is the author of “Perfect Madness” and a contributing columnist for TimesSelect. She is a guest Op-Ed columnist.

[wtmusic]

1. Zembiec once said, "From Day One, I've told [my troops]

that killing is not wrong if it's for a purpose, if it's to keep your nation free or protect your buddy...one of the most noble things you can do is kill the enemy."

Are the Iraqis who killed him noble?

[pokercat999]

4. Yep, samey/same, something we find hard to

realize. The problem is he was wrong from the jump.

[shimmergal]

2. Watching Gates on TV during this speech

gave me a little glimmer of hope. Finally, a real thinking and feeling human being in this Admin.!

Of course those who were there earlier have gotten unceremoniously dumped. Still, it's a different situation today; the Cheney bionic-man model is the one out of step with the country.

Warner gives * more benefit-of-the-doubt in mentioning those private meetings, but hey...she's writing this for the NY Times and probably needs to tone down direct anti-Bush rhetoric.

[sallyseven]

3. Gates was forced on bush,

he was not chosen by him. He is the only sane one in the crowd and that includes Petreaus. bush does not have the ability to hire someone who is intelligent. Every one should be a stupid as he is.