Goldstein = Santiago

Yesterday, the Colossus pondered whether we should rally around a symbol, or a hero, in our fight against Islamic extremism (like Santiago Matamoros in the Spanish fight against the Moors). This is a bit of non-sequitur, but I have a nominee: Jeff Goldstein.

Jeff Goldstein has been a rhetorical thunderstorm, striking hyperbolic lightening rods held by the media during the Katrina aftermath. He's been relentless at poking holes in the memes, lazy arguments and partisan posturing that has been passed off as axiomatic in the debate over the responses to the disaster.

Today, he hits it out of the yard. I hate to "Amen" without any critical thought, but Jeff takes out Andrew Sullivan in doing so. My hand is forced. Let's just go to the clip:

All of which brings me to the point: pace Sullivan, et al., it is my contention that the hyperbolic and emotionally-charged coverage of Katrina is responsible for amplifying problems with the federal response, problems that are not nearly so severe as partisans looking to score political points (and having taken their cues from faulty, myopic, and uninformed reportage) make them out to be. Cleanup and rescue is proceeding much quicker than expected; like relief and rescue workers, the Army Corp of Engineers has overcome tremendous obstacles to fix the several levee breaches, using the kind of improvised ingenuity that is their hallmark; the death toll is far below the original estimates; and so on.

But what is the message our enemy in the war on terror has received? What should happen in the event they attack a city?

Panic. Divisiveness. Unpreparedness. Finger pointing —the very things that Andrew helpfully points out are likely to embolden them. That is, their perception of the situation the ground in New Orleans—which, it’s turning out, is far less dire than was reported—is what is of interest to those who wish to attack us, and they now likely believe that such a strike will lead to widescale civil breakdown and panic, not to the kind of careful and competent response we saw in MS and AL, and that we’re now beginning to see, after the hitch caused by local unpreparedness and a poor management of their city and regional plans for evacuation and first response, in LA as well.

Someone pass this man a cigar.

Seriously.