What Billmon Said

I Hate Pat Buchanan
Especially when he's right.

What is Pat Buchanan saying that's worth ignoring my profound loathing for the man? This:

Still, the Woodward book, the NIE and the savagery of this campaign seem certain to create a crisis for Bush after November.

How, after all, when one's former aides are telling Woodward the White House and the Pentagon blundered in their management of the war, does one convince the American people they did not?

How, after Bush has called the Democratic Party a cut-and-run crowd, and Democrats have accused the White House and Pentagon of being incompetents in fighting the war in Iraq, does one ask for and receive bipartisan support to stay the course?

What do our troops in Iraq, who risk their lives every day, think when they read that their commanding general believes, "We've got to get the (expletive) out of here," and that a victory strategy is "not my job."

France's defeat at Dien Bien Phu in Indochina lead to a second war of national liberation in Algeria, the fall of the Fourth Republic and the call for Gen. de Gaulle to assume power. The general did, and he rang down the curtain on the French Empire.

Are we facing an American Dien Bien Phu?

The only plausible de Gaulle character I can think of is Colin Powell.