CNN Pundit: Mosque Bombing Shows Bush Strategy Is Working In Iraq

[RedEarth]

CNN Pundit: Mosque Bombing Shows Bush Strategy Is Working In Iraq
This afternoon, Terry Jeffery — the editor of Human Events who is paid by CNN to provide political analysis — was asked about the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Iraq. Jeffery said the bombings — part of a wave of violence that have left 200 people dead in the last 24 hours — is evidence that the Bush strategy is working

WOLF BLITZER: Terry, is Iraq falling apart right now?

TERRY JEFFERY: Well, I certainly hope not, Wolf. But I think actually these attacks on Shia shrines can be attributed to the potential success of the Bush strategy.

Question for Mr. Jeffery: What, exactly, would be evidence that Bush’s strategy in Iraq isn’t working?

UPDATE: Fox News asks “All-Out Civil War in Iraq: Could It Be a Good Thing?”

Transcript continues below:

JEFFREY: Right now the ambassador there is pushing hard as he can to get Shias to bring Sunnis into the government that’s forming. Try and get enough power handed over to the Sunnis so they feel comfortable with the political process. Zarqawi who is the head of Al Qaeda in Iraq has quite literally declared sectarian war against the Shias. He’s trying to keep these Sunnis in the insurgency mode. I think this is his biggest gambit yet to do it. If we can get past this crisis maybe we can form a government that does bring stability to Iraq.

Watch It Here.........

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/02/24/cnn-pundit-bombing/

[NewJeffCT]

1. Didn't Bush use logic like that like 2 years ago?

Something like, the more attacks there are, the more desparate the "insurgents" are.

Last throes sort of thing, I guess?

[SofaKingLiberal]

2. That was Rumsfeld. n/t

[rodeodance]

3. I saw the part where Pagala made fun of Bush being 'optimistic" in his

speech today.

[KT2000]

4. This is one talking point

that might break the spell- the bright side to civil war with OUR soldiers in the middle.
Unless they are truly lobotomizing people through the airwaves, this one cannot fly.
How absolutely sick.

[pat_k]

5. Begala was FANTASTIC!

Begala usually ticks me off in some way, but perhaps he -- and others -- are actually beginning to "get" a few things. (Maybe they even peak in on DU occasionally.)

Wolf kept trying to push the "But isn't this a problem for Democrats?" propaganda.

Instead of taking the bait, Begala just wouldn't go there. It was a beautiful thing to watch! Instead of using some euphemism (Bush is "out of touch") he called the idiocy, idiocy ("moronic," "foolish")

It was a beautiful thing to watch!! Transcript

...
BLITZER: A U.S. general says -- Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, senior policy and planning officer for the U.S. Central Command, says "This isn't a bump in the road, it's a pothole. And we'll find out if the shock absorbers in the Iraqi society will hold or whether this will crack the frame."

PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: CNN Well so far the frame is cracking. I deeply disagree with terry's interpretation that somehow it's good news that we have rampant sectarian violence and that a 1200-year-old mosque was burnt to the ground.

This is not what we were promised as a political matter. Here's the president's problem. It's credibility. The sound byte you played in our last segment. The president saying I am optimistic about Iraq. I think he has got the calibration wrong. You don't want to be pessimistic. But he needs to be realistic. And when he says stuff like that, he sounds foolish on the worst week perhaps.

BLITZER: So what should be the strategy for Democrats? The Joe Lieberman strategy, which is hold tight and finish the job as best you can, or the John Murtha strategy, which is basically a phased withdrawal?

BEGALA: Those are policy distinctions that serious policy people are going to draw. I don't have the solution to Iraq. I had the solution which was don't invade. OK, they should have listened to me.

Now they are in the soup. There's no good solution. But what I am saying is politically the president's credibility is crumbling. There are other pro-war Republicans. John McCain and Newt Gingrich who are still very popular. The president is not. The majority of the country thinks the president is no longer honest.

...
BLITZER: It's a complicated though political issue now almost three years into the war, next month three years since the U.S.-led invasion, for Democrats to come up with a unified strategy at this clearly delicate moment.

BEGALA: They don't need one. They are heading into congressional elections. They can do enough by saying we'll ask tough questions. We won't be a rubber stamp.

BLITZER: But you know the Democrats are going to be asked well what do you think the president should do?

BEGALA: Well, 100 different things because they have 100 different positions because they are actually thinking this through. I don't think that's the problem.

I think the problem is that the president from the beginning said we will be greeted as liberators. He said -- just recently the vice president a few months ago said this is the last throes of the insurgency.

Today he says this nonsense about how great everything is. The president is no longer credible about Iraq. He is not a credible leader on national security and it is going to croak his party politically.

BLITZER: Is it going to croak the Republican Party?

Why? Because he says moronic things like I'm optimistic when 100 people are slaughtered in the streets.

[baldguy]

6. Hey, kid!

Losing those arms could be the BEST THING that ever happened to you!

[Leopolds Ghost]

9. They said the same thing about Katrina victims!

Not just Babs Bush. One Washington Post article said that losing his entire family to the floodwaters could be "the best thing that ever happened to him" because it gave him an opportunity to escape the ghetto!

[Clark2008]

10. That baby lost his legs too.

Just doesn't show in that picture.

He's "One."

:cry:

[Arkansas Granny]

7. I gues this is some more of that "insurgency in it's death throes"

logic again. Since when is 200 dead Iraqis in 24 hours a good thing?

[Telly Savalas]

8. Perhaps Terry Jeffery should write letters to the families of the 200 dead

explaining to them what a great thing their loss is. I'm sure it would cheer them up.