I’m live-blogging Pat Buchanan and David Frum squaring off on “Hardball” with Chris Matthew. There’s Commissar Frum looking smarmy and green. Ewww… And there’s Pat, looking his usual great self.
Frum :This is part of a broader struggle. This shows the entire Middle East the way forward — and will show that the battle is between Zarqawi and Bush. This is now a war about democracy. And the democratic side has to win.
Pat: The election was act of courage by the people for going out and voting. The majority want a democratic future. Ah, but this is the question: Are they willing to fight and die for democracy with the same passion that the insurgents have shown? That will decide the fate of Iraq — and, frankly, the future of the Bush administration.
We must begin the withdrawal and transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people and their army. Are they willing to fight to crush the insurgency? One thing they have going for them: the insurgents are just fighting the Americans and the occupation. But if we leave, what are the insurgents fighting for?
Score so far: Pat 1, Frum 0
Matthews asks David Gregory: What now?
Gregory: We’re still in this huge battle with the Arab world and the Iraqis. Are we just trying to prop up Israel and get oil? What about Abu Ghraib?
Chris: The Middle East is used to our pro-Israeli bias. But what about what King Abdullah of Jordan says, it’s a Sunni-Shi’ite struggle. A lot of our friends are going to be concerned about the outcome of the election.
Gregory: We are tapping into a 1000-year old feud.
Chris: Pat, do we know what we’re getting into here?
Pat: Nope. We don’t, and we’re going to lose control of the situation, the Shi’ites are in control.
Chris: David, put this in perspective with a few well-chosen words.
Frum: We speak for democracy, Osama bin Laden speaks for his goats.
Me: Is David Frum really a robot programmed to string fragments of neocon phraseology into sentences and spit them out on cue? Notice how he tries to frame this all into some grand strategic framework, not in terms of how it benefits — or potentially harms — the Iraqi people.