The tragedy of kidnapped journalist Jill Carroll underscores the risks faced by serious journalists working in a war zone. In a remarkable essay, reporter Alissa Rubin examines the situation in Iraq; she says that Jill Carroll was "unable to avoid the wash of fury and hatred that now confronts Westerners. We are not wanted."
Rubin describes a frightening reality: "The truth is that journalists are working in a war zone where no rules apply. No one is safe; not Iraqis, not Westerners, not men, not women."
On Tuesday night George Bush, as usual sounding delusional on the topic of Iraq, spoke of "a difference between responsible criticism that aims for success and defeatism that refuses to acknowledge anything but failure." He also made what may go down in history as the most ironic statment of the millennium: "With so much in the balance, those of us in public office have a duty to speak with candor."
Candor is what we got and with prayers may continue to get from Jill Carroll. Candor is what we're getting from Alissa Rubin. From George Bush we're getting claptrap, not candor.
Fourty years ago another Texan in the White House suffered from foreign policy delusions. LBJ said this in his 1966 State of the Union:
"And let me be absolutely clear: The days may become months, and the months may become years, but we will stay as long as aggression commands us to battle." With those words LBJ condemned the nation to a horrific Vietnam quagmire. Bush is determined to repeat the mistake, enabled just as LBJ was by lapdogs in the Congress and in the mainstream press.
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