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WHAT'S NEW IN TAP ONLINE. Ezra ponders whether David Petraeus is really all that important:
But what’s being discussed in the Senate is bigger than any one man. And David Petraeus knows that. There was a remarkable moment in yesterday's testimony, when Virginian Senator John Warner asked Petraeus whether his strategy in Iraq was making America safer. "Sir," replied Petraeus, "I believe indeed that this is the best course of action to achieve our objectives in Iraq." Warner wasn't satisfied. "Does that make America safer?" he repeated. Petraeus, looking at this late hour tired and raw, finally faltered: "Sir, I don't know actually. I have not sat down and sorted [that] out in my own mind."He may as well have begged, "Please, senator, I am only a man." And that he is. If David Petraeus is recusing himself from the question, "does this make America safer," then what do we care for his testimony? After all, the broader war we're fighting is not the global "War on Terror" or the surge in Iraq, but the war to make America safer. And Petraeus is advising us to look elsewhere for the answer to that question. Which makes his advice on Iraq next to useless.Paul Waldman discusses why the Republicans candidates' love affair with free-market fundamentalism has rendered them completely unable to address the health care crisis.Iason Athanasiadis offers a look back at one of the many Iranian cultural-understanding programs that Mahmoud Amadinejad has shut down in recent years.Posted yesterday, Adele Stan writes that, six years after the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration is encouraging more strife in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Kriston Capps explores whether a portrait of Bush made of clippings from porn magazines works as political critique.And Dana Goldstein attempts to make sense of Newt Gingrich's new spin on the Iraq War.Also, we're proud to announce that TAP Online is a finalist for a 2007 Online Journalism Award in the commentary category! The awards, which honor excellence in digital journalism, are sponsored by the Online News Association and the USC Annenberg School for Communication.--The Editors
