Letters to the Editor
WeikuBoy
Published Letters: 487 Editor's Choice: 62
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A Tipping Point?
[Read the article: A genuine political sea change?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It would be easy to go negative, and point out that the electoral college, which places America's fate so squarely in the hands of rural red staters, has not changed; that the corporate media which finds journalism too unprofitable and relies instead on Gop press releases for most of its stories has not changed; and that the military-industrial complex which has profited so exorbitantly from the slaughter in Iraq (see: Dow 13,000) has not changed. Oh yeah; and that 5.5 years after 9/11, Osama bin-Forgotten, and al-Qaeda continues to threaten and attack the West -- facts so shameful that any Dem on whose watch such gross negligence occurred would surely have long-since been impeached.
But I, too, feel this "sea-change". The moderate Gop's have long-since turned away in horror from (if nothing else) the sheer incompetence of Bush-Cheney. With Dems now controlling Congress, the high crimes and misdemeanors are coming to light so fast and thick that they're hard to keep track of. Thanks to PBS and the Internets, even a few of the less obtuse corporate journalists are finally starting to get it; a critical mass seems to have been reached; and it might no longer be so easy for the would-be neo-fascists to shout down the truth with their angry wolf-howls of "liberal media." Or so we can hope.
It is springtime in the Rockies, and on nice days like today it does indeed feel a bit like Morning in America. Even for those of us who have seen too damn many dark nights.
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An Army of Juan
[Read the article: A genuine political sea change?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nerdnam: "If young Republicans and conservatives can be induced to volunteer for the military in large enough numbers . . . "
That's pretty funny. But it is far more likely that as Stephen Colbert has suggested illegal immigrants from south of the border will be offered U.S. citizenship in exchange for their military service in Iraq. The Bush-Cheney dead-enders really are quite beyond all parody; and Tom Tomorrow's cartoons make it easy to envision Young Republicans of Military Age busily giving their all for their country and sacrificing their weekend in order to draft a set of talking points and prepare a power point presentation in support of just such a plan.
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Mr. Tulkinghorn, Esq. to a White Paging Telephone
[Read the article: A genuine political sea change?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Politically Lost raises a most inconvenient truth: that it's not just politicians and so-called "journalists" who have failed We the People so badly in the last fifteen years. Where was America's distinguished army of lawyers during this long nightmare? Where was the ABA when torture became kosher and the Geneva Conventions were declared quaint? Where were the first-tier law schools and professors when the unitary executive and his fawning courtiers at the latter-day Versailles decided that his oath "to do whatever is necessary to protect the American people" required warrantless searches and seizures of citizens?
Melanie Sloan's CREW has done great and important work, and I know others have tried; but seeing Pakistan's barristers defying a dictator by protesting in the heat and humidity in their court costumes made me more ashamed to be an American than anything David Broder ever wrote. It's like the scene in "Trading Places" when Eddie Murphy's character pleads for legal help and finds none in a room full of wealthy lawyers. Regent Law School notwithstanding, the U.S. has educated more juris doctors than any nation on earth, all for naught, apparently, if it takes only signing statements to repeal the Constitution.
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The Verdict of History
[Read the article: A genuine political sea change?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Nabalzbbfr: "Bush [Jr.] will be seen in hindsight as a great Prophet, who set in motion the forces of freedom and prosperity both here in the US and throughout the world."
Sadly, no. There is not a chance in hell that arrogant prick (or his satanic veep) will ever be remembered fondly by anyone, save a handful of churches in the American midwest and south in which snakes are handled and/or the faithful are wont to speak in tongues.
Junior will be remembered (if at all) as just another failed Texas president who came to office through extraordinarily tragic events and not by the votes of We the People; who lied to ignite a foolish and unnecessary war that turned out very badly; and yet who, unlike LBJ, had no civil rights agenda or other redeeming qualities and lacked even the human decency to step aside when the full magnitude of the disaster became apparent.
In other words, worse than LBJ or Nixon, but perhaps responsible for fewer victims than Attila, Genghis, or Timour. Probably somewhere in the same ballpark as King George III.
Sincerely,
History
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The Left Caused the Carnage in Iraq?
[Read the article: A genuine political sea change?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]RTF100: "Why is that far left shills such as [Glenn] IMPLY that the war will end if the US pulls out (meaning, of course, ASAP). You know exactly what will happen if the US pulls out precipitously, but you really don't give a "bleep" because you can make a career out of blaming somebody else for the carnage. This is the same gross dishonesty and deceit that you beat up the administration for, yet you conveniently ignore the consequences of your own proposals, both real and implied."
The "sea change" sensed includes the belated realization that the removal of Saddam by outside forces touched off an inevitable struggle for power in post-Saddam Iraq between Sunnis and Shiites. Bush-Cheney had no strategy to deal with that reality, only a lot of happy talk about purple thumbs and other nonsense that was really aimed at red state voters in the U.S. Absent a strategy, the US/UK military presence can only postpone and in the meantime further complicate the inevitable day of reckoning for Iraqis.
The Shiites of Iraq and Iran have a long account of debt and injury to settle with the Iraqi Sunnis; and unless Iraq's Muslim neighbors are willing and able to try to stop it, there will be a reckoning regardless of what the U.S. does or doesn't do. That is what those familiar with the region tried to tell Bush-Cheney back in '02-'03; but alas, they did not listen.