Missing Explosives: Blaming the Troops

The National Review is once again carrying the water for this White House and Kevin Drum takes note in META-PARODY. The theme of the Bush apologists seems to be that the troops were at fault – I guess for having such incompetent as their civilian leaders who refused to properly plan.

National Review carried this email from Ed Gillespie, which in part states:

We can not count on the media to set the story straight. We have to get the truth out to our friends and neighbors ourselves.

Of course, Gillespie’s stock in trade does not include “the truth” but rather disinformation. But the real scandal is that the Administration knew about these missing explosives back in late May 2003 and failed to tell us. What were they waiting for – other than the obvious: to let us know AFTER the November 2 elections.

Update: Kevin Drum notes Bush is blaming the troops and Kerry for the missing explosives. See Kevin’s Beneath Contempt. The title comes from the commensts of General Merrill McPeak, former chief of staff of the Air Force:

The President seems to think Senator Kerry could not possibly be criticizing him since the President thinks he has never made a mistake. Let’s be perfectly clear: it is the President who dropped the ball. Senator Kerry is being critical of George Bush, not the troops. By embarking on the line of attack, George Bush is deflecting blame from him over to the military. This is beneath contempt.