Redebate

Re-Debating the War:

Yesterday's closed session by the Honorable Mr. Reid and Durbin was certainly, as it has been described, a political stunt. Their ready-made statements for the press is one evidence of that; another is the fact that Reid himself occupies an ex officio seat on the Senate Select Committee for Intelligence by virtue of his position as Minority leader, and thus could have applied whatever pressure he felt was necessary from the inside. I think, as I said in the comments to Eric's post, that the point here is to cover the forthcoming surrender on Alito with a big nasty debate over the administration's alleged manipulation of pre-war intelligence related to Iraqi WMD.

You can't blame the Democratic Party leadership for this, as they have no alternative. The National Party must keep their base inflamed in order to maintain the level of political donations, which was for the first time last year on par with Republican donations. Yet they cannot win on Alito, because enough of the "Gang of 14" have already pledged to oppose a filibuster that using the filibuster would only result in its removal as a tool. Alito would still be approved, and in the case of future nominees, there would be no filibuster to fall back upon. Besides, Alito was approved unanimously in previous votes and, in spite of having participated in one notable dissent that will draw liberal fire, he has a balanced record on the law that is plainly not the mark of an extremist. Pulling out all the stops on a well-qualified, judicious candidate is not a winning strategy.

So it's to be the war again. We've already had the first of the Senate Select Committee reports, which examined the ways in which the intelligence community utterly failed to perform in the runup to the war. Now the pressure is on to complete and put out a second report, one that focuses on the administration's alleged manipulations. The hope must be to keep the Left fired up, and perhaps score a few points, by investigating the administration in a public way.

Good.

We will all benefit from such an investigation. It is certainly the Senate's job to perform one. Meanwhile, it may finally resolve questions that continue to dog this nation. Not all of these questions are coming from what we've been calling "bad actors," like Joe Wilson. I'm thinking, for example, of Colonel Sam Gardiner. Gardiner wrote a piece a while back called "Truth from these Podia," which alleged a number of manipulations of the domestic press coming out of the Pentagon.

Gardiner is, to judge from his past work at the War College and his publications, an intelligent and insightful man. He is also, to judge from TftP, a man who has entered into a kind of collective paranoia: in the introduction he reports that several parties to whom he showed his data before publishing it had promised him he 'would be punished.' Well, it's been a little while now, and as far as I can tell, he hasn't been: when he first put the thing out, he was supplementing his pension by giving interviews on US military policy to foreign media. These days, it seems he doesn't have to: he's been working with prominent US media, as well as fringe publications. Certainly, if he's suffered at all from an evil conspiracy, it's not immediately evident.

An investigation of this sort is just what he's been calling for, and I'll be glad to see it. I know quite a few people like Col. Gardiner: sharp, smart, patriotic people who have come to believe, for one reason and another, that America is in the grip of a band of evil liars. It is one thing for teenage anarchists to believe that, but quite another to find patriots believing it. We will benefit from exposing the whole business to the sunshine.

The "bad actors" won't be satisfied, of course; and those whose main interest is political will claim not to be, or will simply ignore the report when it arrives (as they have ignored the first one). We owe these people nothing, except contempt.

There remain also the honest patriots, though, who have become concerned for their nation. America owes its patriots an accounting. Those who have loved and believed in her, fought for her, and served her, they have a right to be heard by her. For the Colonel, then, and for others I have known like him, I will be glad to support the investigation. Doubtless it will bring a storm of political opportunism and nasty rhetoric. May the sunshine that comes in the wake of the storm, however, be bright enough to restore the faith of our patriots in this great nation.

Or -- if they are right, as seems highly unlikely but is not impossible -- may it blast the wicked. Either way, we shall be well served.