{"id":2093,"date":"2006-09-25T02:54:28","date_gmt":"2006-09-25T06:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wordpress\/2006\/09\/a_comma\/"},"modified":"2006-09-25T02:54:28","modified_gmt":"2006-09-25T06:54:28","slug":"a_comma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2006\/09\/a_comma\/","title":{"rendered":"A Comma"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>President Bush&#8217;s view of <a href=\"http:\/\/transcripts.cnn.com\/TRANSCRIPTS\/0609\/24\/le.01.html\">the bloodshed in Iraq<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.crooksandliars.com\/2006\/09\/24\/bush-dismisses-bloodshed-in-iraq-as-just-a-comma\/\">video<\/a>):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>BLITZER: We see these horrible bodies showing up &#8230;<br \/>\nBUSH: Of course you do.<br \/>\nBLITZER: &#8230;tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, Al-Qaida in Iraq&#8217;s still operating.<br \/>\nBUSH: Yes, you see &#8212; you see it on TV, and that&#8217;s the power of an enemy that is willing to kill innocent people. But there&#8217;s also an unbelievable will and resiliency by the Iraqi people. Twelve million people voted last December.<br \/>\nAdmittedly, it seems like a decade ago. I like to tell people when the final history is written on Iraq, <strong>it will look like just a comma<\/strong> because there is &#8212; my point is, there&#8217;s a strong will for democracy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Emphasis added).<br \/>\nIt&#8217;s an interesting perspective:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2,700 Americans killed on September 11 = a day that changed everything<\/li>\n<li>2,700 Americans killed + 20,000 Americans wounded + tens of thousands of Iraqis killed and wounded = a comma in history<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I wonder how well it would go over if a leading Democrat referred to the attack on September 11 as a &#8220;comma&#8221; (or semicolon) in the grand scheme of history.  I suspect it wouldn&#8217;t go over well.<br \/>\n[Incidentally, I majored in history, and in four years I never did learn when the &#8220;final history&#8221; regarding an event is written.  Perhaps Tony Snow can clear that point up on a slow news day.]<br \/>\nIf that wasn&#8217;t enough, Mr. Bush added this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>These people want a unity government. The unity government is functioning. I&#8217;m impressed by President Maliki.<br \/>\nI&#8217;ve talked to him. I&#8217;ve seen the decision-making process that he&#8217;s put in place. The Iraqi army is still recruiting and training.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Unity government?  Funny, I just read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2006\/09\/24\/world\/middleeast\/25iraqcnd.html?ex=1316750400&#038;en=7110a67da33764d1&#038;ei=5090&#038;partner=rssuserland&#038;emc=rss\">this<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>After yielding to several demands from Sunni Arab parties, Iraqi political leaders agreed on Sunday to start debate on a bill that could eventually allow the country to be broken into autonomous states.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I guess it all depends on what your definition of a &#8220;unity government&#8221; is.<br \/>\nUPDATE: Jack Cafferty weighs in on the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.crooksandliars.com\/2006\/09\/25\/cafferty-sometimes-politicians-say-really-dumb-things\/\">comma<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<a href=\"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/2006\/09\/a_comma\/\" rel=\"bookmark\" title=\"Permalink to A Comma\"><p>President Bush&#8217;s view of the bloodshed in Iraq (video): BLITZER: We see these horrible bodies showing up &#8230; BUSH: Of course you do. BLITZER: &#8230;tortured, mutilation. The Shia and the Sunni, the Iranians apparently having a negative role. Of course, Al-Qaida in Iraq&#8217;s still operating. BUSH: Yes, you see &#8212; you see it on TV, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2093","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"h-entry","8":"hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2093\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brianarner.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}