Cognitive Dissonance: Can The Emboldened Be Emboldened?

By Jeralyn, Section War on Terror
Posted on Mon Sep 25, 2006 at 11:15:50 PM EST
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(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

The scramble on the Right in the wake of the NIE Report that the Iraq Debacle has worsened the terrorism situation has led to some very strange contortions.

Michelle Malkin says:

If our intelligence agencies are laboring under the moonbat illusion that Muslim hatred of the infidel West didn't really start bubbling until the year 2003, we are really in deep, deep doo-doo.

So no "emboldening" by the Iraq Debacle says The Wild One. But James Joyner says:

[I]t's quite likely that an American withdrawal from Iraq without accomplishing the barest part of our mission-a reasonably stable, democratic society-would embolden the jihadists.

I see. So the Iraq Debacle could not possibly have embolden the terrorists (Malkin) but withdrawing from Iraq will embolden the terrorists (Joyner). This makes a much sense as the "safer but not safe" nonsense from Bush.

Here is the simple truth, the hardened terrorists required no emboldening. To discuss it a a serious question is absurd. What the NIE is saying is that the terrorists have garnered great sympathy in the Arab and Muslim world because of the Iraq Debacle, bringing them more followers and support.

Is it that the Right does not understand this simple point or that they choose not to? Let's try it one more time -- the Iraq Debacle has not emboldened existing terrorists, but rather it has created more terrorists. Staying in Iraq creates more terrorists. Will leaving Iraq create more terrorists? That's Joyner's view but no one knows. In the meantime, Afghanistan is becoming a failed state because we undertook the Iraq Debacle. Is that emboldening the terrorists?

Let's face it, the Right has never been willing to discuss these isues seriously. It has been nothing but partisan politics to them. So they certainly are not going to start 6 weeks before an election.

One final point - both Joyner and Malkin and the rest of the Right Choir show great disdain for the abilities of the intelligence communities, how they got everything wrong etc. Let's accept that premise. The question is how well did the Bush Administration do? How well did the Right do? Bush, Cheny, Rummy, Wolfowitz, etc., how well did they do? Please. The chutzpah of the Right on this is stunning. Me, I mostly listened to