Speaking of Kathleen’s column, what I said yesterday about she and George Will being the only nationally syndicated columnists to comment yet on the Soviet — oops, I mean "Russian," silly me — invasion of Georgia still holds true. Wait, let me double-check:
- Leonard Pitts — nope
- Tom Teepen — nope (sorry, I couldn’t find a link)
- Bob Herbert — nope
- David Broder — nope
- Maureen Dowd — nope
- Robert Samuelson — nope
- David Brooks — nope
- Paul Krugman — nope
- Nicholas Kristof — nope (although he did an important piece on how this country underinvests in diplomacy, so props there, or snaps, or whatever the kids say these days)
- Thomas Friedman — nope
- Gail Collins — nope
Oh, dang — Cal Thomas just moved one, for tomorrow publication. And I forgot, Bill Kristol did one on Monday. But that still holds with my theory that only those on the right want to tackle the subject — which is one reason I’m not running Thomas’ piece — after Will and Parker back to back, I’m looking for some variety of viewpoint here. And besides, Thomas loses points because he also did one of the six columns above on John Edwards, even as Soviet — I mean, Russian — tanks rolled toward Tbilisi.
And have I written a column on the subject, or do I intend to? No way. Besides, I’m not paid primarily to comment on national and international issues, like some fancypants people I could mention (and just did).
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Bill Kristol has commented.
oops, somehow missed that you mentioned Kristol.
I sincerely wish you’d walk to Sumter and back, or Aiken, or El Paso, before you put a Tom Teepen column in the paper.
Typical Bill Kristol. He’s ready to go in with guns blazing. Not Bill literally of course. He’s just another chickenhawk. Do you folks on the right never get tired of killing? Its seems like after a while the novelty would wear off.
“Nicholas Kristof… did an important piece on how this country underinvests in diplomacy.”
Important? When the New York Times has no more credence than the Gamecock?
Kristof probably never wrote anything “important” in his entire life.
Kill or be killed, bud. Seems a simple choice.
Last night, I happened to hit the “play” button on my DVD player remote to see what disc was in it (what? you want me to walk across the room?) and it turned out to be “Trading Places.” And I saw part of the scene in which Louis Winthorpe is lying to his girlfriend about having stopped the “desperate robber” Billy Ray Valentine (and no, I don’t have to look these names up) from “stealing the payroll.”
He airily explains that in such cases, instinct takes over: “It’s either kill… or be killed.”
(Wait, there’s a point here.)
It occurred to me, when p.m. said that just now, that bud probably pictures p.m. and me and other what he calls “chickenhawks” as being like Louis — the soft, cowardly blowhard who talks big but has never, as Ophelia notes, done a day’s real work in his life.
Am I on target?
(OK, I just said there was a point. I didn’t say it was a good one. I was just riffing.)
… Randy — that’s like Randy Jackson of the Jackson Five, right?
I… suppose so…
I can’t speak for Bud, but my definition of a chickenhawk is someone who is gungho when it comes to agressive military action yet has never been close to serving in a position where actual life-and-death decisions related to soldiers on the frontline are involved.
There are too many to name… but they start with our current President, Vice President, Rush Limbaugh, Rudy Guiliani, and on and on. All hat, no cattle as the saying goes. No skin in the game.
Guys like Bill Kristol and Rush Limbaugh would be wearing adult diapers if forced to be on the front lines.
McCain is not a chickenhawk. He’s a guy whose only view of the world is one shaped by growing up around and being in the military. A pop psychology major might say he’s still trying to win the Vietnam War and get some internal justification for his P.O.W. days.
This is a delicate situation that needs diplomacy before anyone goes in “guns a blazing”, even if Russia did fire first.
Yes, Russia is moving back to old Soviet practices. But the US partnered with the old Soviet Union in joint space ventures.
The US is a partner with Russia, several European countries, and Japan in building the International Space Station; each space agency now has major components on the space station. Billions have been spent building the space station. Currently the commander of the station crew alternately comes from the US and Russia, with the other nation supplying the other two crew members.
After the Columbia accident, the Russion Soyuz was the primary method of tranferring a new crew to the station. The Space Shuttle only recently resumed rotating a crew member. After the Space Shuttle is retired in 2010, the US is dependent upon the Russians to supply crew transport. In 2011, the exemption to the Iran-Syria Non-Proliferation Act regarding Russia expires and Congress may not renew the exemption.
The US may find that we won’t have access to the International Space Station until 2015 when the replacement for the Space Shuttle starts flying.
If Kristol is a chickenhawk, bud, now that Obama has recommended escalation in Afghanistan chickenhawkishly, does that make him on, or is he just a nuthatch?
The nuthatch, by the way, is the only bird that walks down tree trunks beak first.
Make him one, dadgummit. Make him one.
A chickenhawk, that is.
Nicolas Kristof is one of few journalists who discovered that evangelical Christians are involved in just about every corner of the globe in humanitarian effort, going places where many will not and never go. Of course, we had been there all along, but it was nice of him to discover that. Not that it matters. But all in all, he tries to report fairly,
even though he disagrees with our position.
That’s more than can be said for some others.
Guys like Bill Kristol and Rush Limbaugh would be wearing adult diapers if forced to be on the front lines.
-Doug
I guess that DEPENDS on the meaning of “front lines”.