Kristol on Iraq: Do Dems Want This To Succeed or Not? [Video]

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I'd say Bill Kristol nailed it on this morning's Fox News Sunday. And while his comments were directed at Democrats, they're equally applicable to the MSM IMHO, making them NB-worthy.

Kristol: "People are being too complacent or forgiving to the Democrats: 'Oh, it's politics; one of them has a non-binding resolution and another one has a cap.' It's all totally irresponsible. It's just unbelievable. The president is sending over a new commander, he's sending over troops, and the Democratic congress, either in a pseudo-binding way or a non-binding way is saying: 'it won't work -- forget it! You troops, you're going over there on a pointless missions. You Iraqis who might side with us, forget it, we're going to pull the plug." It's so irresponsible . . . You really wonder: do they want it to work or not? I really wonder that. . . Do they want this to succeed or not?"

View video here.

NPR's Juan Williams tried his best: "I think everybody wants to succeed who believes in the idea that we are over there and our people are at stake. I don't think there's any question about that. I think that's sort of a rhetorical tool on your part. But your analysis seems to be totally ahistorical. It's as if mistakes haven't been made repeatedlhy as if people don't feel they have been misled down this path. There has been tremendous support for this president and for this war effort, and it has come to naught and it has come to a bad place."

Brit Hume got in a final, telling rejoinder: "Juan, serious people recognize one thing, and we are short of serious people nowadays. Which is that is that wars get into bad places and even winning conflicts do. And you talk about an 'ahistorical' view. Strikes me that the view you are espousing is very much that. You look at any major war that has been fought over a period of time and the winning side has had terrible moments and stretches of time when it appeared that victory might not be possible . . . What you have from the Democrats is the idea, as Nancy Pelosi put it, this isn't a war to be won, this is a conflict to be resolved. And their answer is retreat. You call it redeployment. It's a euphemism, Juan! It's retreat."

Substitute "MSM" for Democrat, and see if the exchange doesn't work quite nicely as a depiction of liberal media thinking on the war.

Mark was in Iraq in November. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net