Today's New Verb: Murtharize

While I've always felt accusing someone of flip-flopping on political issues simply because the person who changed their opinion happens to have nuanced thinking (or was presented with new information to which they must react and change course) is childish, I can no longer resist the temptation.

Many Republicans, decorated military Generals, and even some infamous neocons themselves have flipped, flopped and waffled their way toward more reasonable thinking, while looking back on their colleagues hanging by their fingernails onto support for the war on Iraq with perplexing confusion.

The latest to join the cut-n-run crowd of American troop haters is Representative Gil Gutknecht of Minnesota:

Rep. Gil Gutknecht, R-Minn., once a strong supporter of the war, returned from Iraq this week declaring that conditions in Baghdad were far worse "than we'd been led to believe," and urging that troop withdrawals begin immediately.

"Essentially, what the White House is saying is, 'Stay the course, stay the course,' " Gutknecht said. "I don't think that course is politically sustainable."During a debate last month, Gutknecht intoned, "Members, now is not the time to go wobbly." This week, he conceded "I guess I didn't understand the situation," saying that a partial troop withdrawal now would "send a clear message to the Iraqis that the next step is up to you."

Read on.

Gutknecht his hardly alone, as Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina commented on seeing the reality of the situation:

"It's like after (Hurricane) Katrina, when the secretary of Homeland Security was saying all those people weren't really stranded (at the New Orleans civic center) when we were all watching it on TV," said Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C. "I still hear about that. We can't look like we won't face reality."

It is fair to say these and the other Republicans stepping up to the plate of reality are wobbling on Iraq due to the fact that supporting the Iraq war before the upcoming mid-term elections is getting closer and closer to political suicide, as most Americans are now seeing Iraq for what it actually is.

However, two of the most prominent architects of Neo-conservatism, without public offices to lose, have expressed their own thoughts on the war in no uncertain terms, and I thought I’d recap what both of them said a few months ago before the death toll and increasing symptoms of civil war evolved to what they are today:

Francis Fukuyama

History:
Fukuyama is an author and is influential in American economics when it comes to Free Market Capitalism. Those are his virtuous qualities. He’s one the strongest voices for the inevitable collapse of non-Capitalist governments in favor of democracies, whether or not that is done at the barrel a gun or not. He is also one of the founding architects of neo-conservatism, and a key member of the Project for the New American Century and has close ties to other neo-conservatives in that group, such as Karl Rove and Scooter Libby. He signed a letter urging president Bush to invade and occupy Iraq, whether or not there was evidence that Saddam had anything to do with 9/11.

Fukuyama’s current views on Iraq:
“Neo-conservatism should be discarded on to history's pile of discredited ideologies….By invading Iraq, the Bush administration created a self-fulfilling prophecy: Iraq has now replaced Afghanistan as a magnet, a training ground and an operational base for jihadist terrorists, with plenty of American targets to shoot at… The so-called Bush Doctrine that set the framework for the administration's first term is now in shambles…successful pre-emption depends on the ability to predict the future accurately and on good intelligence, which was not forthcoming, while America's perceived unilateralism has isolated it as never before. The Islamist Muslim Brotherhood made a strong showing in Egypt's parliamentary elections in November and December. While the holding of elections in Iraq this past December was an achievement in itself, the vote led to the ascendance of a Shiite bloc with close ties to Iran (following on the election of the conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president of Iran in June). But the clincher was the decisive Hamas victory in the Palestinian election last month, which brought to power a movement overtly dedicated to the destruction of Israel…read on.
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William F. Buckley Jr.

History: With way too many qualifiers and surnames in his identification, William F. Buckley has been a major influential force in the conservative movement since the 1950’s, and is a much more recognized name to the American publican than Fukuyama. He founded the conservative National Review publication, but before doing so wrote “God and Man at Yale” which lashed out at Yale for straying from it’s original Christian, Capitalist mission. Once in a debate with Gore Vidal regarding the
situation at the Democratic Convention in Chicago during Vietnam, Buckley responded to being called a Nazi by saying, “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in your goddamn face, and you'll stay plastered.” In 1991 he was awarded the Medal of Freedom by W’s father. He’s a classic conservative who comes from money, privilege and opportunity.

Buckley’s current views on Iraq:
"One can't doubt that the American objective in Iraq has failed… because Iraqi animosities have proved uncontainable by an invading army of 130,000 Americans... It would not be surprising to learn from an anonymously cited American soldier that he can understand why Saddam Hussein was needed to keep the Sunnis and the Shiites from each other's throats…

The administration has, now, to cope with failure… Mr. Bush has a very difficult internal problem here because to make the kind of concession that is strategically appropriate requires a mitigation of policies he has several times affirmed in high-flown pronouncements…(read the entire article here)."

Although it is easy to pounce on these men for their abrupt about-face, I certainly applaud them and welcome them to the world of reality with warm handshake and a “we’ve been expecting you” kind of greeting.

Additionally, I think perhaps the most important thing here is to expose the juvenile and destructive behavior of most Bush supporters that continues today, and can be observed on cable news talk shows, AM radio, and any other political forum (including the comments of this very web site). Said behavior involves accusing those who don’t support continued long tours of duty in Iraq or the philosophy of the war itself of being anti-American, not supporting the troops, and rooting for America to fail in the Middle East.

It occurs to me that most Bush voters hurling those insults will not do so to the men listed above, or the countless other Republican politicians and military experts will be spared this rhetoric, unlike the John Murthas, Senator Kerrys, and Howard Deans of the world.

Honestly, this kind of political smearing confuses me. I’ve never been able to fully understand how someone who observes that Iraq is a mess and calls it a mess, is somehow helping to cause Iraq to be a mess, rather than those who want to keep our troops in the middle of the mess in the first place. Nor can I comprehend how person A, who wants our troops home and out of harms way, is actually less troop-supporting than person B, who wishes to keep them there to die for a cause of which no one is quite sure.

And, I certainly don’t understand how those who have served, such as Murtha, Kerry, Kennedy, Clark, and Cleeland, are considered less patriotic and more war-ignorant than the civilians pushing the war, such as Bush, Limbaugh, Hannity, Cheney, Rove, O’Reilly etc, all of whom have more deferments and active military duty no-shows than the invite list to a cocktail party at Ann Coulter’s house (don’t make me use the list!)

Nevertheless, it doesn’t make this kind of language any less obnoxious, off-point, or infinitely worse, a total irrelevant and inaccurate distraction from an open-thought sponsored exchange of ideas. It is almost as if those taking this position are admitting political bankruptcy, and throwing sand in the eyes of those who would distract them with facts and reality.

However, if Bush supporters continue to use one of the key defining characteristics of fascism (creating scapegoats by accusing those against military action of being unpatriotic and aiding the enemy), at least have the courage and sense of balance to throw these same accusations at one of your own. The list seems to grow a little bit each month.