Andrew Sullivan Hissy-Fit Watch

It seems to me that some kind of reckoning has to be made by the president himself. No one below him can have the impact of a presidential statement of apology to the Iraqi and American people. Bush should give one. He should show true responsibility and remorse, which I have no doubt he feels. I can think of no better way than to go to Abu Ghraib itself, to witness the place where these abuses occurred and swear that the culprits will be punished and that it will not happen again. It would be a huge gesture. But frankly there is something tawdry about a president at a time like this campaigning in the Midwest in a bus. His entire war's rationale has been called into question. The integrity of the United States has been indelibly harmed on his watch. He must account for it. Soon. And why not in Iraq?

Hmmmm... why not? Maybe because terrorists shelled Abu Ghraib two weeks ago.

Hey, pal, maybe you should go to Abu Gharaib and apologize on all our behalfs. Haven't noticed that Andrew Sulivan has made any trips there.

And why should the President make such a dramatic, and dangerous, gesture?

Oh yes: Because the Muslim world is "angry" at us.

Gee, first fuckin' time on that, huh? We guess we must have really blown it to set the even-tempered, level-headed Muslim street into such a tizzy.

You know, it's really about time that we in the West stopped feeding into the Muslim extremists' belief that their unending, ritualistic "rages" have any effect on us. We're tired of being expected to walk on eggshells around a quarter of the world's population.

We can either accept dhimmitude or we can require the Muslim and Arab world to just fucking get over it, and get over themselves. They scream "Humiliation!" like Jesse Jackson screams "Selma all over again!"

And for us, at least, it now has the precise same impact. Which is to say, a rueful chuckle and/or a bemused smirk.

Andrew Sullivan Hissy-Fit Watch-- Current Status: Shrieking upon a table; believes he spied a mouse.

We grow weary of Andy's hormonal imbalances and constant cases of the vapors. Grow a pal, chum. This isn't seventh grade, and you're not a pretty little girl. You don't demonstrate your profound moral objections to events by simply engaging in ever-and-more hysterical and insulting language.

Andy has always been much, much too quick to hit that "Righteous Outrage" button. Remember Trent Lott?

posted by Ace at 12:26 AM

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