Far East Cynic

John Cole answers the mail…….

And in the process points out why Hugh Hewitt is a poor writer.

One has to push back when these guys-regardless of which side of the aisle they are on-distort the facts.

Like when William “The Bloody” Kristol tries to just make them up out of thin air.

The surge-monger wrote:

What about terrorism? Apart from Iraq, there has been less of it, here and abroad, than many experts predicted on Sept. 12, 2001. So Bush and Vice President Cheney probably are doing some important things right.

Uh, sorry Bill. That’s not exactly true-even with your caveat about Iraq:

Somebody is doing proper analysis:

The implication that there has been less terrorism abroad is simply not true.In fact, since 9/11, terror attacks and fatalities have been on the rise around the world—not just in the Middle East, but nearly everywhere. Just look at the graphic to the right, which is adapted from FP’s 9/11+5, a look at the state of terror around the world five years after 9/11 by two terrorism experts at RAND. Even without counting the Middle East, the number of attacks elsewhere
in the world has soared for the years 2002-2005 over the period 1998-2001.

FP’s summary is what the rest of us wishes Kristol’s commentary was, fair and balanced:

It’s fine and fair to debate Bush’s legacy, and he’s surely done a few good things over the past six years. And Bill Kristol is certainly entitled to his own opinion; if he think Bush has been boffo, then more power to him. But Kristol is certainly not entitled to his own facts.