THE HOROWITZ / ROBERT MUELLER ITEM generated a lot of comments. Eugene Volokh says that Mueller’s lines are akin to Vince Lombardi saying: “Boys, this is a tough team and they’re going to score on us; but you can’t let their occasional successes break your spriit.” Several others wrote to echo this point.
Most correspondents weren’t so kind. Richard Bennett emails these suggestions: If Mueller was Patrick Henry, he would have said: “give me liberty or give me slavery, it doesn’t really matter.”
If he were in Boston during Paul Revere’s ride, he would have said: “One if by land, or one if by sea, or one if out of the air, or one if tomorrow. Whatever, dude.”
Okay, that’s a little harsh, but that’s Richard. Blogosphere favorite Claire Berlinski surfaces long enough to send this correction to Horowitz: Re: ‘If Mueller had delivered the statement to the troops on the eve of D-Day instead of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower: “Men, no matter how well we plan this thing, half of you are gonna die anyway. I wish there was something else I could do. Good luck.”‘
I believe you’re alluding to Patton’s speech, not Eisenhower’s. It was Patton who said: “You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle.” It was Patton who addressed the troops; Eisenhower’s D-Day speech was broadcast to all of Europe.
I only point this out because Patton’s speech is so marvellous that it really deserves the credit. I wish he were still running the show. Check it out. Yes, I’d like to see a bit more Patton from quite a few of our leaders at the moment. (Berlinski reports, by the way, that she’s finishing up her book, Loose Lips, and that bloggers will love it).
Reader Scott Hegelson sent this, along with several others: Mueller as Yoda: “Try not. Do not. There is no point. Too big is the starship for you.”
There were many others — too many to post here (sorry about the comments, there’s still a Java problem; I’ll activate ’em here in case we can get it fixed later this evening). But perhaps the most cogent point came from reader PJ VanBloem:
Must say I don’t understand what Mueller is doing. Horowitz overstates the case, as I don’t think he’s throwing in the towel, but apart from simple ass-covering, I don’t know what Mueller is trying to accomplish.
The Eisenhower pseudo-quote strikes me as pretty accurate. The Farragut one would be better as: “Look at all the torpedoes! We are bound to lose some ships.” Mueller does _not_ say “I’m out of here” or “Let’s turn back”, but neither does he say “Full speed ahead!”
Mueller should have at least added, “We’re doing the best we can, and the likelihood of more attacks only means we need to continue our War on Terrorism.”
I think we’re all well aware that you don’t win a war (or a game) with defense, and the FBI is on defense.
Yes. I don’t mind Mueller saying “We’re the goalie, and the goalie can’t stop every shot.” But his statement did have a rather negative resonance to me, and obviously I’m not the only one who read it that way. If his goal was to lower expectations, well, he certainly succeeded.