Hit it on the head:

[jrittenhouse]

My favorite conservative columnist, Daniel Larison, is hitting it on the head and out of the ballpark this morning about the mindless OMG’ing in the Beltway press and elsewhere about political dishonesty on national security issues.

He brings up two main directions on this:

1. if Group A is out of office, then Group B (who is in) are feebly trying to sell you down the river and are incompetent fools.
2. If you’re in Group B (the guys who are in) you never make mistakes, all is well,  and whatever we do is inexpensive, effective and well planned.

Examples given:

• the non-existent Missile Gap of the late 1950s
• who lost China/Vietnam/etc - Soft On Communism, etc.
• Iraq and Afghanistan will be quick, surgical and inexpensive
• Let’s attack Iran/Yemen/whoever because it will show them a thing or two after a few bombers make them fall in line.

This is not a new thing; but it’s stupid and irresponsible and cuts across parties.   I see the same in preparation for future threats and disasters  - a lot of what Bruce S calls ‘security theater‘ for new shiny ways of making people feel somehow secure that are barely thought out at all, combined with vendors who are happy to sell it.  That way, you look like you’ve Done Something without ever making sure that it’s worth anything when push comes to shove.   You have a set of gold-starred binders in your office saying that everything is cool, and you can forget about it.