Most Ridiculous Moment - May 17, 2015

THE RIGHT DECISION

It was another scary day on the Sunday 
talk shows. The hot topic was, of course, the U.S. killing of a leader of ISIS, and 
the crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia.

Former CIA director Mike Morell came on ABC to warn that ISIS is trying make bubonic plague, after which George Stephanopoulos asked “what's your greatest fear from ISIS?” Morell said it was “an attack in the homeland using some sort of weapons of mass destruction, which we're a long way off from.” Diane Feinstein appeared to warn ISIS is 
in twelve countries and “is organized. It is an impressive fighting force. It occupies territory. It runs a government. And most importantly it is evil.”

On Meet The Press, Richard Engel compared the terrorist killed to Al Capone's accountant. Tom Friedman said “we are in post-imperial era” and “We're in a post-colonial era” and “we're increasingly in a post-authoritarian era. And unless these people can learn how to govern themselves horizontally, by forging social contracts for how to live together, this region is going to be a human development disaster area for the next President.”

On the same show, Chuck Todd complained to Senator Booker, and his panel, that Democrats were “grandstanding” and 
“taking political advantage” of the Amtrak crash to push for more Amtrak funding, 
while his Republican guest agreed, saying “the Democrats have been shameful this week on this.”

On the other big issue of the week, Jeb Bush's defense of the invasion of Iraq, Peggy Noonan said “He deserves, I think great credit in this,” while Chuck Todd's Republican guest said Jeb couldn't criticize 
the war because he was commander
in chief of the Air National Guard.

But the most absurd moments came when two Republican Presidential candidates faced their own Iraq war questions, having had both a decade to prepare and Jeb Bush's example to learn from.

On Face The Nation, Scott Walker said quote “any president, regardless of party, probably would have made a similar decision to what President Bush did at the time with the information he had available.” He talked up the surge, complained the region is destabilized because President Obama withdrew from Iraq, and claimed the world was safe when Reagan was President because he fired the air traffic controllers.

On Fox New Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Marco Rubio several times this challenging question, “Was it a mistake to go into Iraq?”

After Rubio said it was not a mistake, Wallace clarified that he meant based on what we know now. Rubio shrugged and said dismissively, "Well, based on what we know now, I would not have thought Manny Pacquiao was going to beat, uh, in that fight a few weeks ago,” a strange analogy since Pacquiao lost that fight.

Rubio repeated the phrase “It was not a mistake,” not once, or twice, but six times. When Wallace asked again in “hindsight,” if it was a mistake, Rubio said “The world is a better place because Saddam Hussein is not there.” Wallace asked again, “So was it a mistake or not?” Rubio responded “I don't understand the question you're asking.”

Finally insisting Bush was dealing with Saddam Hussein, not a “Nobel prize winner” and even though the reason for the war didn't exist, Rubio said “That does not mean he made the wrong decision,” and “He made the right decision.”

So, years after all sane and normal people, even on the right, admit invading Iraq was huge, colossal, terrible mistake, Republican Presidential candidates still insist that because Hussein hadn't won the Nobel peace prize, or should not have been in power, or the intelligence was wrong, the decision to invade was not a mistake, and the President made the right decision. And that's the most ridiculous thing that happened this Sunday.

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