Bozell Column: Obama's Libyan War
Think of all the militant anti-war types who were thrilled at the
removal of the Bush "war machine" in 2008, only to see President
Obama's strained endorsement of military action in Libya. Oh, how the
political wave of the hard left has crashed ashore. It seems like only
yesterday when they were celebrating Cindy Sheehan as she flagrantly
called President Bush "the biggest terrorist in the world."
Then they elected Obama and it all went to Hell.
Over the last two years, these chagrined radicals have watched in
stunned disbelief while their hero Obama continued the Iraq war wrap-up
on the generals' timeline and then added more troops in Afghanistan.
They listened in shock as Team Obama announced it was reversing itself
on indefinite detentions at Guantanamo.
And now he's started his very own kinetic military action.
Where are our friends in the press? They must be
wondering. The media's said nothing about Iraq for them, nothing about
Afghanistan. Virtually nothing about the Gitmo flip-flop.
And now they're pro-war in Libya.
Were
these journalists ever "anti-war"? Or was all that coverage of George
W. Bush as a Constitution-shredding global embarrassment just a
convenient partisan campaign? If the No War for Oil crowd thought the
run-up to war in Iraq featured a docile media, how on Earth must they
feel about the docility of the press as Obama started dropping bombs on
Libya? Someone pass the smelling salts.
It's pure and simple: The re-election of Barack Obama trumps all.
The news media will bury anything negative that threatens his return in
2013.
The media know full well that Obama's refusal to obtain
congressional approval is a flat-out betrayal, and a documentation of a
lie. The media have the footage of Candidate Obama in 2007: "The
president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally
authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve
stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation." The media also
know (then-) presidential candidate Joe Biden said he'd personally lead
the impeachment if Bush went to war with Iran without a congressional
vote.
Some in the print press found this, like Washington Post "fact
checker" Glenn Kessler. But had this been Bush exercising such brazen
dishonesty, it would have been the lead story on every TV network news
program - for days. But it was Obama and Biden who lied through their
teeth and nothing will interfere with Obama-Biden in 2012.
Like their Democrat friends, Harry "The War is Lost" Reid and Nancy
"Iraq Was a Grotesque Mistake" Pelosi, our media were the loyal
opposition in the Bush years. It is astonishing to see them so
shamefully switch their talking points so quickly and robotically -
perhaps as quickly and robotically as General Obama.
Exhibit A is former Washington Post defense reporter Thomas Ricks.
Five years ago, he wrote an Iraq book with the title "Fiasco." That
tome was touted as "a searing judgment on the strategic blindness" of
Bush's war. In his book, Ricks even trashed Democrats. They were not
doves but "lambs" for their failure to oversee the excesses of the
executive branch.
So who is this lobotomized Tom Ricks who showed up on "Meet the
Press" on March 27? This man put on rose-colored glasses and magically
transformed himself into Mr. Best-Case Scenario.
NBC's David Gregory asked: If Gaddafi stays, can we really say
"Mission accomplished"? Ricks didn't hesitate. "Yes. I think what
they'll say is we gave it a chance. All Obama is saying is give war a
chance," Ricks proclaimed. "Not our war. All we did was kick the door
down, let the Brits and the French and the others do it. And I think
his notion is we're going to be out of there long before this is
resolved. That's the hope. That's the best-case scenario."
As one of Obama's media "lambs," Ricks also insisted that if there
are Islamic extremists among the Libyan rebels, that's okay, since they
seem to like us right now. "I don't think that all Islamic extremists
are necessarily our enemy. What we're at war with is violent Islamic
extremists who want to attack the United States. I think what you're
seeing now is something very different, which is some of those Islamic
extremists are cheering the United States."
The economy is in shambles - who cares. The country is broke - who
cares. We're in a third war now, and we don't know why or to what end -
and who cares. All that matters is that whatever helps Obama is the top
"news." Whatever hurts Obama is destined to be left on the back-burner
in a rusting pot.
