Monday, June 27, 2005
(8:30 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Benefit of the Doubt
I'm going to give Karl Rove the benefit of the doubt on this one. After all, any American can see right through this ridiculous nonsense, so the idea that he is saying such things for political gain is simply implausible. What he is doing with his remarks is precisely defending our nation's cities through subterfuge:"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Mr. Rove, the senior political adviser to President Bush, said at a fund-raiser in Midtown for the Conservative Party of New York State.Knowing that cities are traditionally much more liberal than rural areas, Rove is attempting, in a desperate gambit, to convince the terrorists that liberals are their natural allies. After all, terrorists do nothing but sit around watching TV all day:
Citing calls by progressive groups to respond carefully to the attacks, Mr. Rove said to the applause of several hundred audience members, "I don't know about you, but moderation and restraint is not what I felt when I watched the twin towers crumble to the ground, a side of the Pentagon destroyed, and almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens perish in flames and rubble."
Mr. Rove also said American armed forces overseas were in more jeopardy as a result of remarks last week by Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who compared American mistreatment of detainees to the acts of "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others."As we know, if the terrorists -- a finite group of people whom we can definitively kill off -- are fighting our troops in Iraq, then they obviously cannot simultaneously be attacking the US mainland. But if they do somehow manage to spare 20 guys to come up with an elaborate plot to kill 3000 people in the space of an hour, Rove is betting that they are going to strike at the "tough and resolute" Red States rather than their "natural allies," the liberals. Thus, if all goes according to plan, we get the headline: "Terrorists attack grain silo, killing several mice."
"Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year?" Mr. Rove asked. "Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."
It's brilliant. The guy is totally the genius everyone says he is.
UPDATE: Bitch PhD directs me to a site where US Servicemen object to Rove's remarks.
