Iraqification is a strategy for the long haul, but over the next six months, when progress must be made, this is our job. And the main challenge now is to preserve our national morale. ...
It's not that we can't accept casualties. History shows that Americans are willing to make sacrifices. The real doubts come when we see ourselves inflicting them. What will happen to the national mood when the news programs start broadcasting images of the brutal measures our own troops will have to adopt? Inevitably, there will be atrocities that will cause many good-hearted people to defect from the cause. They will be tempted to have us retreat into the paradise of our own innocence. ...
The president will have to remind us that we live in a fallen world, that we have to take morally hazardous action if we are to defeat the killers who confront us. It is our responsibility to not walk away. It is our responsibility to recognize the dark realities of human nature, while still preserving our idealistic faith in a better Middle East.
I can't help noticing now that this was just after the visit of Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller to Iraq, when he encouraged those in charge of the Abu Ghuraib prison to apply Guantanamo-like "interrogation" techniques - torture in plain language - to suspects held there.
Was Bobo making a prediction about the future course of the war based on his historical understanding of guerrilla conflicts? Or did he know that a decision had been taken to apply torture systematically in Iraq? It's a speculative question. But I have to wonder whether Bobo takes his responsibility as a journalist in situations like that more seriously than his devotion to propagandizing for the Republican Party.
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