Krazy Kavalier Kristol

By Michael J.W. Stickings

From TP: Yesterday on Fox News -- where else? -- Krazy Kristol argued that "the surge clearly is working" and that it should continue, with current troop levels, for "another six months," perhaps even "another year or so" (note the "or so" -- it could mean anything, but what it certainly means is open-ended war, a war with no end in sight).

In so arguing, and in maintaining a degree of hawkishness that is truly insane, Kristol finds himself in opposition not just to many in his own party, not just to the overwhelming majority of the American people, but to the intelligence community (the NIE asserts that the surge is clearly not working) and the military (which recognizes, and worries about, the strain that comes from overextension).

As TP reminds us, "Kristol has never served in the military and was one of the most cocksure voices pushing for the current escalation strategy" -- he was pushing war with Iraq, and American hegemony generally, long before Bush embarked on this disaster of a war in the Middle East. It is awfully cavalier of someone who has never gone to war to be such a warmongers -- and particularly at this stage of such a disastrous war. It is easy enough to go on TV, the friendly confines of Fox News, and call for war and more war, endless war -- what is the risk, that he could further damage his credibility? It is much more difficult, one imagines, to call for war when you yourself, or your loved ones, would be put in harm's way. Which is why I have a great deal more respect for John McCain than for Bill Kristol.

Kristol wants six more months or another year, or more, of this war, of this occupation. But what of the lives he so cavalierly puts at risk? What of those troops, those men and women with loved ones back home, those men and women who are living with the daily strain of war and who have seen their tours of duty extended?

What of them, and what of the Iraqis? No matter, Kristol is hardly in a position to understand the human cost of war.

He might as well be playing Stratego -- the object: American (and Republican) hegemony.

Does this mean that no one who hasn't been to war, or whose loved ones haven't, should support war? No. What it means is that one shouldn't be so cavalier about it.

But that is precisely what Krazy Kristol has become. He has been wrong about this war all along -- just as he has been wrong about American foreign and military policy for even longer. And he wants more of it. He will continue to be wrong, but he will continue to flourish on Fox News, where being wrong comes with the territory.

Which, on its own, wouldn't be so bad: a lot of people are wrong about a lot of things. But what is so bad about this is that this war isn't a game -- the troops, the civilians, the "enemy," however defined, aren't pieces on a board to be moved around and put in harm's way, and sacrificed, for the sake of the larger goal of winning the game, no matter what.

(And if you don't win, so what, you just start over -- Iran?)

Bill Kristol has become one of the war's most appalling advocates. And he is only getting worse.