Remember how CBS News reporter Laura (OK, Lara) Logan five days ago brought up the “manage the defeat” idea? Remember how she implied all the smart people already had embraced the concept?
Well, I just did some checking, and it turns out that, before Logan, almost no one had used those words in reference to the Iraq war.
In the six months before Logan mentioned it in her Nov. 26 “60 Minutes” interview with Gen. John Abizaid, the only major English-language publication or television program to use that phrase was The Financial Times. And that wasn’t until Nov. 17.
Manage-defeat conversation. The Financial Times commentary said:
Mr Bush’s appearances since the Republicans’ election defeat have been a study in equivocation. His pronouncements come in two parts. A first, scripted, section speaks to the political reality that the voters want a change of course. This Mr. Bush professes himself open to new ideas, ready to take advice. It is the one who sacked Donald Rumsfeld the day after the elections.
Once he starts answering questions, though, the second, unscripted, Mr. Bush strikes a decidedly different note. This president is not thinking about withdrawal, staged or otherwise. He is eager for strategies to deliver victory, fresh thinking to help America win. This Mr. Bush does not sound ready to join the how-to-manage-defeat conversation.
The Financial Times also seemed to assume “managing defeat” was in popular, mainstream conversation. Certainly pseudo-liberal partisans have been rooting for defeat in Iraq. But it wasn’t until after the election and after Bush accepted Rumsfeld’s resignation that the Iraq Study Group idea of gracefully sacrificing democracy for security-alone in Iraq became the loudest burp in the Bakermania binge.
‘We hear a lot.’ The Financial Times was first to refer to those surrender terms as “managing defeat.” Until Laura Logan threw it in Gen. Abizaid’s face:
Logan: We hear very little about victory in Iraq these days. We hear a lot about how to manage the defeat. And a lot of Americans...
Abizaid: What defeat?
Logan: How we minimize the defeat.
Abizaid: That’s your word. Defeat is your word, not my word. Can Iraq stabilize? Yes, Iraq could stabilize.
Logan: Is that what we--is that victory now? Is that what victory will look like in Iraq, just stability? That’s what we’re aiming for?
Abizaid: Victory in Iraq is a nation at peace with its neighbors, and Iraq hasn’t been at peace with its neighbors in a long time. It is a country that respects the rights of its citizens. It’s a country that can defend itself. It’s a country that’s not a safe haven for terrorists.
Logan: Increasingly in this country, people are talking about how to manage defeat in Iraq.
Yeah, “increasingly.” In one day, Logan doubled the number of people talking about it.
Frank Warner
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