Given A Choice, The Nation Would End The Iraq Debacle

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Media
Posted on Mon May 21, 2007 at 06:28:11 AM EST
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In urging the Congress to renew a voucher program for DC, Fred Hiatt writes:

If it were up to the children and their parents, there'd be no question that the District's five-year experiment with school vouchers would be renewed for an additional five years or more.

But when it comes to the Iraq Debacle, Fred Hiatt urges the Bush Administration to ignore the wishes of the American People:

It's tempting to say that if it was wrong to go in, it must be wrong to stay in. . . . Walking away is likely to make a bad situation worse. A patient, sustained U.S. commitment, with gradually diminishing military forces, could still help Iraq to move in the right direction.

The overwhelming wishes of the American People do not matter to Fred Hiatt when it comes to Iraq. Hypocrite.

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Given A Choice, The Nation Would End The Iraq Debacle | 15 comments (15 topical)

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Fred Hiatt (none / 0) (#1)
by calugg on Mon May 21, 2007 at 06:52:03 AM EST

Well, he's pretty clueless on vouchers. Everytime the general public has VOTED on voucher programs, they've been shot down by a wide margin.

So WHY on earth does this shill keep his job?

No idea....

So (none / 0) (#3)
by Wile ECoyote on Mon May 21, 2007 at 07:52:01 AM EST

pushing for vouchers for DC children is shilling for the "elites"? Explain please.

Conscience money (none / 0) (#4)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Mon May 21, 2007 at 08:11:44 AM EST

The elites can avoid feeling guilty sending their kids to better schools if the poor can do so as well.


So (none / 0) (#5)
by Wile ECoyote on Mon May 21, 2007 at 10:54:23 AM EST

then the "elites" should be behind vouchers for DC children. Of course they aren't.


oddly enough (none / 0) (#12)
by cpinva on Mon May 21, 2007 at 02:41:57 PM EST

there's absolutely no empirical evidence, to date, that children using vouchers, or attending charter schools, do any better than their peers attending those horrid public schools.

absolutely the "D.C. elites" are behind vouchers, as well as charter schools. these "elites" would be republicans, who see this as a way of slowly eroding, eventually eliminating the public school system in this country.

they've always been irked at the concept of a decent, basic education for the "commoners", especially in the south. anything they can do to destroy the basis of this education, they will happily sign on to.


We could always... (none / 0) (#13)
by kdog on Mon May 21, 2007 at 02:51:06 PM EST

leave Iraq a few weeks earlier than planned (in 20 years or so by my guess) and with the billions saved we can fund vouchers while not reducing the funding for public schools.

Just a thought...


: And (none / 0) (#14)
by squeaky on Mon May 21, 2007 at 03:23:26 PM EST

Free oil and gas for all with the money saved. A good deal for the taxpayers for sure, getting off cheap.

Ah (none / 0) (#15)
by Wile ECoyote on Mon May 21, 2007 at 05:00:44 PM EST

so the Gores, Carters and Clintons who sent their children to Sidwell Friends made a mistake. Gotcha.

But don't give poor parents a choice in the matter. "Horrid public schools" as you put it are for everyone but the elite.


Hyatt is a Corporate Slug (none / 0) (#6)
by squeaky on Mon May 21, 2007 at 10:56:42 AM EST

Al-Qaeda, at least as a vague franchise, still exists, and remains a major threat to the US. That is, however, mostly because opportunistic forces on the American Right would use any further attacks on the US to abrogate more of our constitutional rights. At the moment, al-Qaeda's biggest targets are other Muslims.....
The longer we stay in Iraq, the more likely it is that it will produce another attack on the US mainland. Since important elements of the US political, military and corporate elite are apparently not actually much interested in democracy, another such attack might provide the heavies with a pretext to do away with it in practice (the Putin model), whatever trimmings they retain. Former CENTCOM commander Tommy Franks once suggested as much.
So getting out of Iraq might be the only way to save the Republic. [emphasis mine]

Juan Cole Read the whole thing.

If the (none / 0) (#7)
by jondee on Mon May 21, 2007 at 10:56:57 AM EST

oh-so-genuinely-concerned-about-children, economic (yes) elites behind the "privatization or bust" movement devoted half the passion and creative energy they devote to their pet project to working to improve actual conditions for the kids that they're supposedly concerned about, alot of good things could happen.

The voucher crap is just a sugar-coated cover story for the ideological holy war being waged by the Norquist quarter against (some) taxation and any regulation.

Fred Hiatt? Whaddabout Reid & Pelosi? (none / 0) (#8)
by fairleft on Mon May 21, 2007 at 11:25:17 AM EST

They're negotiating, this week, a big 'bipartisan' Iraq supplemental with apparently voidable 'benchmarks'. Fred Hiatt doesn't have the power to end the Iraq debacle, but those two folks might.

The Newspapers (none / 0) (#9)
by squeaky on Mon May 21, 2007 at 12:06:02 PM EST

do have power to end the war, due to their influence. If Corporate America stepped up to the plate the war would be over next week.


: Progressive blogosphere pressure (5.00 / 1) (#11)
by fairleft on Mon May 21, 2007 at 01:05:17 PM EST

on Reid and Pelosi is non-existent in this critical week. And the blogosphere is part of the media now and increasingly so.

Speaking of Latin America (none / 0) (#10)
by Al on Mon May 21, 2007 at 12:58:45 PM EST

Actually, Latin America has been pretty good at getting rid of the despots of yesteryear and their organizations. It's been a slow and painful process, with many setbacks, but on the whole it's been quite successful.

Americans, on the other hand, don't seem to be able to muster enough conviction to do anything about the thugs in power. Their conviction goes only as far as telling a pollster anonymously that they don't like Bush. And they grumble that the Democratic politicians, most of whom are cut from the same cloth as their Republican counterparts, do not seriously oppose the regime lest their jobs should be at risk.

: lol (none / 0) (#16)
by Wile ECoyote on Mon May 21, 2007 at 05:02:29 PM EST

Chavez is no thug? He going to be like a magnesium fire a bright burning thug who goes out much faster than the slower burning communist thug.