Stitch, I am absolutely floored, we have managed just by showing some teeth to Iraq to avoid a military confrontation, but the media (MSNBC, which I have been watching this morning) manage somehow to paint this as a US political defeat. Those journalists are simply blood thirsty, and they are actually disappointed that we do not have to bomb Iraq back to the stone age.
Sure the media is robbed of the opportunity of keeping everyone mesmerized in front of the tube for the next few weeks, but I can live with that much better than with the necessity to use violent means to bring Saddam to reason.
I wonder if the public accepts this point of view, or actually look at it as a political victory. Saddam agrees finally (under duress) to continued inspections, there is no need for us to spend a billion or two in thousands of smart bombs (short the defense establishment stocks (VBG)), we will not have to watch thousands of innocent Iraqi perish when the smart bombs turn dumb and hit a school or a hospital, and yet, Saddam hands will continue to be tied as far as his ambitions to develop weapons of mass destruction. Am I reading this wrong? How can the media paint this as "tying the US hands"?. The strategic goal is not killing a bunch of Iraqi, the strategic goal is eliminating Saddam program of weapons of mass destruction. If he cheats and once more we have to show our teeth in six months, fine, but right now, let peace reign.
Zeev |
