Holiday Hucksters

Last week on Fox's Sunday show (you know, the one where their "panel" consists of one wishy-washy liberal sandwiched between two crass neocons/Bush apologists, where the wishy-washy liberal almost always capitulates to / gets him or herself co-opted, etc.) - more, I'm afraid to say, in terms of shameless water-carrying............................I point, specifically, to the panel discussion. Being (I guess) that we were fast approaching the Thanksgiving holiday, the moderator proceeded to ask these panelists, "so, what are you thankful for this Thanksgiving?" Their answers? Both Fred Barnes and Charles Krauthammer said that they (are you ready for this?) were thankful for all the "wonderful progress that's been taking place in Iraq.".............................Wow, huh? Talk about using an American holiday (and, yes, what clearly should have been an opportunity to show SOME humility) to make a cheap/blatantly partisan political point - and an obviously deceptive one, at that. It's despicable, I'm telling you - beyond the pale and then some..............................P.S. Seriously, though, how many times do I have to say this? Yes, there may be some reduction in violence in certain places. Does this mean that the surge is working? Of course not. 1) The added influx of troops has only squelched the violence (any time you add more checkpoints, the violence is suppressed BUT ONLY FOR AS LONG AS YOU HAVE THE CHECKPOINTS). As soon as we leave, the violence will return, whether we leave nine months from now or nine years from now. 2) A great deal of the reduced violence in certain areas is because those areas have already been ethnically cleansed (all those frigging refugees, hello!). There isn't any longer a need for murder/mayhem. And 3) the goal of the surge, AS WAS STATED BY THE ADMINISTRATION, was to create an opportunity for political reconciliation. The fact that there hasn't been any, folks, DE facto, makes the surge a failure. A failure, Mr.s Barnes and Krauthammer, am I safe to assume that you're thankful for that as well? Ya' morons.