Cal Thomas had the line of the night on this evening's Fox News Watch. Here's how the conservative commentator explained Americans' dissatisfaction with progress in Iraq:
"Part of the problem here is we have Desert Storm with the 100-hour war. Everybody came home. There were victory marches, General Schwarzkopf leading. The press was full of stories: 'we finally got the Vietnam monkey off our back.' Now we're used to the very quick action. It's not going to happen, except thank goodness Jack Bauer is coming back to make it happen on '24' - that's what we're waiting for."
Well said, Cal.
View video here.
Interestingly, Cal's comment echoed that made to me by Colonel George Bristol, Commanding Officer at Camp Fallujah when I visited there. He also alluded to our fast-food mentality and quick success in Desert Storm. The colonel expressed confidence we could win in Iraq - given the time.
Mark was in Iraq in November. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net
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Comments Policy
With apologies to NB's own
January 13, 2007 - 20:40 ET by Mark FinkelsteinWith apologies to NB's own Jack Bauer, I have to admit: I've never watched an episode of '24'!
Mark,I too resemble your re
January 13, 2007 - 20:56 ET by bigtimerMark,
I too resemble your remark.
"If we ever forget that we are a Nation Under God....then we will be a Nation Gone Under." Ronald Reagan
mark -- you should get on t
January 13, 2007 - 20:57 ET by Jack Bauermark -- you should get on the clock.
Rent Day 1. You'll be hooked. Especially with dopey but hot daughter Kim Bauer.
Jack has a way with words
I'm federal agent Jack Bauer, and today is the longest day of my life.
I'm gonna need a hacksaw
Kim, I want you to point the gun at his chest and pull the trigger now.
You are gonna tell me what I wanna know, it's just a matter of how much you want it to hurt.
The only reason that you're conscious right now is because I don't want to carry you.
That's the problem with people like you, George. You want results, but you never want to get your hands dirty. I'd start rolling up your sleeves.
[to Joseph Prado, after breaking every finger in his hand]
This will help you with the pain.
[Jack knocks him unconscious]
Proud member of the all-powerful and vast militarist/industrialist/capitalist/zionist-bagelist complex
I haven't seen any episodes
January 14, 2007 - 03:53 ET by DyneI haven't seen any episodes myself, but what I do say about the series is that poor Jack is REALLY having a bad day. After all, it has commercials.
Not all Americans are stupid, it's just that all of the idiots are given jobs within the MSM.
My wife is hooked on the show
January 14, 2007 - 06:49 ET by PeskyDaneMy wife is hooked on the show. Great quotes - will have to add them to my repetoire.
Wow, Mark, I thought I was th
January 13, 2007 - 21:29 ET by saw the lightWow, Mark, I thought I was the only one! My wife got me Seasons 1 and 2 for Christmas after hearing many positive stories about it. We started watching it a few days later, and couldn't stop. We finished Season 1 in about a week and are already more than halfway through Season 2. We joked that we needed to buy Seasons 3-5 and watch them quickly so we could watch this Sunday.
The show definitely holds your interest, though I share similar thoughts about Kim. I keep telling my wife that she is more trouble than she is worth, always seeming to get into trouble. I leave out how hot she is (like when she wore the wife-beater shirt in Season 2 - WOW).
"People everywhere confuse what they read in newspapers with news." - A.J. Liebling
Save yourself some money, g
January 14, 2007 - 01:50 ET by The PresbyterSave yourself some money, get Netflix. It's the greatest thing ever for watching TV series.
Mark - it is not standard tv
January 13, 2007 - 20:56 ET by FastEdMark - it is not standard tv pap. When you have to be home for whatever reason, like couch fritter me, it becomes the time-out you need after watching or listening to the lame stream media types. You could call it TVs version of shock and awe. (Warning "shock" is not for the faint hearted)
There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad
Cal Thomas is all too right.
January 13, 2007 - 21:02 ET by UnsaneCal Thomas is all too right. We in the United States want it NOW, NOW, NOW. Very few of us understand how long things can take.
Read a history of WWII for instance. If not interrupted, I suppose I could read all of Keegan's single volume history of that event in a day. From beginning to end, all phases included, it took just over 6 years. People have lost that perspective - of just how long things can take.
Turning the clock forward to 2007, all the more shocking is that if you REALLY want to, you can tune out the war entirely (as the American public did Korea). With our satellite TVs, we can choose channels that say NOTHING about the conflict. We can read books on other subjects and continue to engage in other economic activities undeterred (shopping and so forth) and uninterrupted by conflict. That was something you simply could not do in 1943.
So in a sense it isn't too surprising that some of us are treating the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as they would a TV series that has perhaps shown one too many programs without thinking through fully the implications of suddenly bolting. I guess some of us need a new reality TV series. Sad indeed.
"HAV3 TH3 BRIDG3S OF INSANITY B33N CROSS3D AND FOR3V3R R3TRACT3D???." - Meshuggah, "3ntrapm3nt", from Catch Thirty Thr33 (2005)
I'm glad some other people ar
January 13, 2007 - 21:28 ET by Conservative in the ArtsI'm glad some other people are getting it. I said this summer that I was tired of the Dems wanting a "happymeal of Democracy" and being sick of the toy by the time they got home. I also used the analogy of my daughter just learning to walk: sometimes I let her fall, and some times I catch her. It all depended on the surounding area at the time. Bush needs to let Iraq fall sometimes in thier learning to stand on thier own two feet. The hanging was one such "owie" from stumbling.
Can I have fries with that instead of apples?
January 13, 2007 - 22:13 ET by terrigCITA, I've been saying the same thing myself that this war isn't a drive thru, game boy experience.
When I got back from Desert Storm, it was sort of interesting. I had been over there for about 9 months in the build up (Saudi Arabia) and then spent about 2 months in Iraq itself. I know percentage wise there weren't the casualties that there are today but there were some, (anyone remember the scud that it the barracks?). However, this is a different kind of war, maybe if we had fought that one differently we wouldn't be here today. When my husband was there he was a Staff Sgt. and he said he remembers thinking "why are we stopping?". Today as a Major he's just tired of the lack of support from the Dims & from those who want this to be like a 90 minute movie.
I think it's time that Iraq get the message that we won't always be there (kind of like a parent). I hope that they can stand up and if they try and fall like you we will be there to help but the time has come. We both still believe in "the mission". He just feels that Congress doesn't.
CITA - i got a chuckle and sa
January 15, 2007 - 14:24 ET by Chicago RepublicanCITA - i got a chuckle and said a hearty "amen" to your comment about Dems wanting a "happymeal of Democracy". Well put.
fast food nation
January 13, 2007 - 21:30 ET by john ryanI like America. If you don't well go to somewhere that has more patience with its government.
Exactly!
January 13, 2007 - 21:35 ET by emjem24Cal said exactly what I've been thinking for some time. Americans have been spoiled and coddled by our immediate access society. Most of the American public believed that the Iraq War would be a "cake walk" and that we'd be outta there in no time. Not exactly. War is not a video game nor a episode of "24," a show I can't personally stand because Kiefer Sutherland is the biggest liberal out there (unless somebody can provide me with evidence to the contrary). When things get tough it's time to bail for the American public. You see this all the time with marriage, school, even the way we bring up kids in our society. I think that the American public really needs to reexamine its priorities if we are to surive as a country. What's it to be folks: Social Security or a nuclear winter?
The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer. Air Force Motto
em...I agree,The left in this
January 13, 2007 - 21:47 ET by bigtimerem...I agree,
The left in this country think everything can be accomplished as fast and neat as a video game...
That's the whole point....it is just a game to the creatures.
Pathetic is it not?
We have a very spoiled unrealistic forgetful ungrateful nation when it comes to the leftists..
"If we ever forget that we are a Nation Under God....then we will be a Nation Gone Under." Ronald Reagan
Our war with the government o
January 14, 2007 - 01:20 ET by mbx175Our war with the government of Iraq ended in 2003. We are now fighting al-Qaeda, Iran and Syria whether we like it or not.
...and the enemy within!The
January 14, 2007 - 01:27 ET by bigtimer...and the enemy within!
The traitors all!
"If we ever forget that we are a Nation Under God....then we will be a Nation Gone Under." Ronald Reagan
Why do conservatives give t
January 14, 2007 - 02:35 ET by blogonatorWhy do conservatives give this product of Hollywood a pass. It's an unrealistic, liberal worldview, produced and writen by the lib hollyweird establishment and starring lib Sutherland. Please tell me that people aren't so enamoured by Sutherland's fictional onscreen persona, patriotism, and heroics that they are blinded to the realities.
Because they like the show?
January 14, 2007 - 02:37 ET by TexasOptimistBecause they like the show?
Merry Christmas 2007.
Don't understand your point blogonator
January 14, 2007 - 06:51 ET by Jack BauerWhy do conservatives give this product of Hollywood a pass.
Even if what you say is 100% true -- which I dispute anyway -- so what?
You seem to be saying that it doesn't matter what 24 is about -- all that matters is that it's produced by liberals. (The show's creator is a personal friend of Rush Limbaugh, but we'll let that pass.)
You know, the way The Path To 9/11 was subject to a powerful, sustained and vicious attack by the left simply because it was produced by gasp, shock, horror, a ... CONSERVATIVE!
And that could not be allowed to stand.
Excuse me. But that's NOT what my (and this website's) criticism of the liberal elites is all about.
Following that illogic puts us on a par with the braindead, intolerant, totalitarian leftoids who try to suppress ANY dissent against their hegemony in the media and academia.
What you seem to be saying is --
"hey, I'm not watching your shows because all you do infuse them with a soft, Euro-centric, welfare state socialism and worldview.
(FAIR ENOUGH!!)
But guess what. Even if you produce well-written, well-acted, exciting shows which DO reflect my conservative values, I ain't gonna watch them anyway. So frack you."
Huh?? That's pretty idiotic to me. They're actors playing roles. You can't tell them to shut up and act, then complain when they do in storylines which we, as conservatives really enjoy.
And please, don't even try to argue that Keifer Sutherland playing a heroic character is somehow hypocritical on his part because, well he ain't that in real life. HE'S AN ACTOR!!
Come on man, you gotta get a better argument than that -- and pass me the hacksaw.
Proud member of the all-powerful and vast militarist/industrialist/capitalist/zionist-bagelist complex
Good post, Jack.Yeah, I wish
January 14, 2007 - 07:45 ET by Indiana JoeGood post, Jack.
Yeah, I wish these libs would make up their minds. Either we're narrow-minded bigots if we boycott an actor's work because of his politics, or we're hypocrites if we watch an actor whose politics don't agree with ours. It's the perfect liberal circular argument.
Either way, we're wrong, right?
I-Joe --It's a good job con
January 14, 2007 - 08:10 ET by Jack BauerI-Joe --
It's a good job conservatives are so tolerant, else half of Hollyweird's audience would disappear overnight.
Proud member of the all-powerful and vast militarist/industrialist/capitalist/zionist-bagelist complex
"or we're hypocrites i
January 14, 2007 - 14:04 ET by blogonator"or we're hypocrites if we watch an actor whose politics don't agree with ours"
Actually, that's true. I don't support shows or msm that puts money in the checking accounts of liberals whose beliefs and views want to harm america. Simple as that. That's what boycotting is all about. It's about making a sacrifice and choosing not to watch something that might entertain us for an hour if it means helping those who wish to harm our country. Our troops are over in Iraq risking their lives against an enemy there that is spurred on by an enemy here on the home front. The least I can do is do my part here at home by not to watching lib propaganda.
Well, first off, I've never w
January 14, 2007 - 19:05 ET by Indiana JoeWell, first off, I've never watched "24." Not a single episode. I have no idea what Sutherland's political views are, maybe because I've never seen him using his celebrity status to espouse them. Maybe he has, and I missed it. I don't really watch much TV anymore at all.
Maybe the simplest way to put my thoughts is, if a celebrity chooses to use their profession as a "soapbox" to push a political agenda, then I feel they open themselves up to having people who disagree with them boycott their work. But, if they just do their job, and keep their personal politics out of their work, then I have no problem with that. I don't insist that everyone I do business with agree with me politically. "Activism," I guess, is the distinction I'm making here.
All that aside, the point of my whole sentence from above was, in a nutshell, "we're damned if we do, and damned if we don't."
Despite my boycott, I chose
January 14, 2007 - 23:14 ET by blogonatorDespite my boycott, I chose to watch 24 tonight to prove my point. I can say that I don't plan on watching again. How anyone can claim that show isn't a lib soapbox is beyond me. Every character who wanted to be tough on terrorism (ie domestic surveilance, warrantless searches of suspected terrorists, gitmo-like facilities) was portrayed as a bad guy, whilethe ACLU-types were portrayed as good guys. Further, the show draws a line between "good" terrorists (who can help despite their heinous past crimes) and "bad" terrorists. Sickening lib propaganda - I hate to see conservatives sucked in by the show, but hey it's okay to watch because it's action-packed and entertaining, even if it is espousing liberal beliefs and worldview. Bullsh-t.
As for Sutherland being "just" an actor... wrong. He's an executive producer.
You're kinda latching on to p
January 14, 2007 - 23:20 ET by balboaYou're kinda latching on to plot points without context.
I think the show presents characters who are both liberal and conservative.
How much have you watched? Ar
January 15, 2007 - 00:35 ET by dvdaughtryHow much have you watched? Are you giving an synopis on the whole series based on one night?
Your so noble in your boycott. I am going to take a stab, since you claim conservativism, that you disagree with homosexuality. Do you boycott Disney? Walmart? Do you watch anything on ABC? While you're at it, give Fox the cold shoulder for running 24, since they are running the "propaganda". I hope your not a sports fan, or get your news from Foxnews.
If you boycott, you better boycott it all.
And for the record, propoganda is become so overused it is losing its sting. 24 is not trying to brainwash anybody.
When you come down from your high horse, we'll still be here.
Indiana Joe...Donald Sutherla
January 14, 2007 - 23:35 ET by Clear thinkerIndiana Joe...
Donald Sutherland is a flaming liberal, his son Keifer is more on the conservative side. In fact, Keifer once admitted that he and his Dad have a hard time discussing politics in a civil manner. Keifer is a pretty good actor, and he plays the part of Jack Bauer very convincingly.
They would never let a real J
January 14, 2007 - 03:21 ET by Right Wing Attack DogThey would never let a real Jack Bauer anywhere near Iraq. Our military are not allowed to defend themselves. We have soldiers being wounded and dying, after getting shot at by rocket launchers, before they are allowed to return fire. They will be brought up on charges if they shoot first.
Finally, and after much exp
January 14, 2007 - 07:20 ET by sarcasmoFinally, and after much expense, Saddam is dead, but I still say Dave Barry had it right all-along, whether or not anyone actually-listened at the time. The problem was Saddam back then, but now the problem is Iraq. Iraq, whether or not anyone likes admitting it, is apparently three countries -- Kurdistan, Shiastan & Sunnistan -- mistakenly cobbled together into one by the Brits early last century. Shiastan is now at war with Sunnistan, and there are a few decades of scores to settle. Absent a brutal dictator like Saddam or Tito, Yugoslavias like Iraq naturally fall apart, just like what's happening right now, and all the excellent military people & hardware & money we can throw into the fray won't stop it, IMO.
JMR
AMEN Cal Thomas
January 14, 2007 - 09:55 ET by Chicago RepublicanA*M*E*N, Cal. I have always said that we Americans live in such a comfortable, detached society that we think everything should be as fast as ordering pay-per-view. Many of our country suffer from this "microwave mentality" as I call it. War is hard, even the mightiest nations of the world make military mistakes and have setbacks. I think Desert Storm spoiled us - its not reality. Even with the best military minds at the helm, these projects in Iraq and Afghanistan may take many more years and more casualties. Sorry, its reality. Our enemies have the patience to endure setbacks. I sometimes fear that we do not, and the Useful Idiots (MSM) do nothing to help the situation with the constant one-sided negative reporting.
Cal is one of the best, and h
January 14, 2007 - 10:52 ET by rimskyCal is one of the best, and he's spot on. We want quick action victory in all things. And no messiness, please. Just quick, clean victory, and if you can't produce that, don't even start. The GWOT could last longer than any war we've ever fought, and I pray that we have the stomach to endure.
Personally, I think America h
January 14, 2007 - 11:00 ET by Roger the ShrubberPersonally, I think America has been waiting for a Willy Loman from "Death of a Salesman." But that's just my "average, everyday American" way of thinking, the same way Frank Rich thinks.
LOL
January 14, 2007 - 12:58 ET by Mark FinkelsteinLOL
Hallelujah Cal! He and Jim
January 14, 2007 - 14:06 ET by happyuscitizenHallelujah Cal! He and Jim from Newsday are the only reason I tune in to the Fox News Watch.
Senor Finkelstein I too admit to never having watched and episode of '24'; sorry Jack, just something about Kiefer Sutherland being the spawn of elitist Donald.
My fellow Americans in general do not want their sports preempted by the fact that we are at war in a place that they generally could not find on a map.
I just hope that this coming push is not a ploy and that every one is at least reminded when we do grease al-Sadr, that the little twirp rose to prominence when the CPA tried to serve a murder warrant on him. Things take time I understand, but the sooner of troops and our allies have these scumbags roled up the better, once the tide turns and the MSM can no longer subvert our victories, then the regular folks will be chanting USA again.
Tony Snow says he reads the blogs and the like; well Tony tell your boss that the asskicking needs to commence immediately! We gave the Iraqis a gift, and if they are too ignorant to realize this, then you guys need to call their cousins in Dearborn and get them to light a fire under their rumps!
"I'm just a big fat hairy American Winning Machine!" - Ricky Bobby