Geodog

J. M. Marshall sums it up

In an article on the whole Trent Lott controversy, J. M. Marshall cites a WP article quoting White House officials saying "the absence of news from the war on terrorism last week contributed to the focus on Lott."

Marshall writes:

[this is a] revealing statement of how much the White House has to come rely upon and use the war on terrorism to muffle down domestic political problems.

You can believe in the necessity of the war on terrorism and still recognize how crassly the White House sometimes exploits it for the narrowest political purposes.

Marshall hits the nail on the head with precision, as he so often does. The lengths that the Bush administration goes to to exploit of the war on terrorism for its political ends are cynical and evil in and of themselves, but I also fear that they will have long lasting and deeply harmful effects. If people around the world come to see the "war on terrorism" as simply a cynical exercise for domestic political gain, how much support will the U.S. get for combating terrorism? All the sympathy that the US garnered after 9-11 is being thrown away, and we, the citizens of the US, will have to pay the price in the end.