Letters to the Editor
RichEmery
Published Letters: 840 Editor's Choice: 191
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This isn't a DEBATE
[Read the article: The escalation debate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's really the sound of one hand clapping -- in order to have a debate, you must have two parties that are actively engaged with each other. Our Decider-in-Chief has NO interest in hearing what others not under his thumb have to say about ANYTHING -- and those under his thumb have no interest or ability to challenge him in any real way. It's quite convenient, actually.
Besides, debate is an intellectual exercise. We've never had a President who's flabbier intellectually than THIS bozo.
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The lyrics of a classic Gershwin song come to mind right now...
[Read the article: "Staying the course" or "slow failure"?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"You say potato, and I say po-TAH-to; you say tomato, and I say to-MAH-to. Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto; LET'S CALL THE WHOLE THING OFF!"
Indeed, indeed. "Staying the course" or "slow failure" -- it scarcely matters what it's called -- Dubya's Iraq "plan" was ill-conceived, poorly executed, misguided, and probably doomed to failure from the start. The president thought his accountability moment came and went in November 2004; so sorry, but the American people claimed a "do-over" in November 2006, and you're STILL accountable, George.
Let's call the whole thing OFF. Democrats and honest Republicans in Congress, the ball is now in your court. YOU have the duty, the responsibility and the POWER to bring this debacle in Iraq to an end.
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Politics is often defined as "the art of the possible"
[Read the article: The sense of the Senate]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]So, Sen. Reid should do what IS possible at this moment -- get the "sense of the Senate" resolution about the Iraq buildup on the floor, and let the chips fall where they may.
Even if a filibuster can't be shut down, when a majority of the Senate clearly favors the resolution as presented (and you can easily make the case that a majority in favor of cloture equals a majority in favor of the resolution), Reid can declare a moral victory.
My God, how hard would it be for Reid and all other supporters of the resolution to "spin" even a failed cloture vote into this moral victory that shows exactly what the sense of the Senate is? This is so simple!
Just DO it, Sen. Reid -- there is nothing to lose, and everything to gain. Better to be on the right side of THIS issue -- unlike those Representatives and Senators who now struggle to explain their votes in 2002 to approve "use of force" in Iraq.
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Two thoughts
[Read the article: Sacrifice, Bush style: Watch TV]
[Read more letters about this article: Here](Which would be two more than Dubya has on the typical day.)
1. Dubya evidently believes the Iraq war is something akin to a video game -- just move virtual warriors around the video screen with your mouse, and engage in a virtual war. Well, even given the tears he shed last week when honoring the heroic soldier who sacrificed his life to save his comrades from a grenade, he obviously just doesn't GET IT, and never will.
2. The disconnect between life-going-on-as-usual here at home, rather than sacrificing in any REAL way to acknowledge this "pre-eminent battle of the 21st Century", shows that we've regressed to a practice common in a previous era -- war by proxy, and by mercenaries. In all reality, we're paying our armed forces to do ALL the sacrificing, to suffer ALL the pain, to risk EVERYTHING, while we're here at home, merrily going about our lives. People evaded/avoided the draft by paying others to fight for them during our Civil War -- how is this really any different?
What an embarrassment this man is to our country. How utterly undeserving he is of the office once occupied by other giants from American history! I give great credit to those interviewing Dubya at their ability to restrain themselves from laughing out loud at many of his statements -- but then, they lose much of that credit by failing to follow up and point out the idiocy of those same statements.
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Will George Voinovich join Olympia Snowe?
[Read the article: Hagel, Democrats agree on anti-escalation resolution]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]We may see a further fracturing of the old Republican front that once blindly supported Pres. Bush. Voinovich has often lined up with Sen. Snowe on fiscal and budget issues -- let's hope he adds one more principled voice to this growing revolt against a badly misguided Iraq policy.
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No, Mr. Santorum...
[Read the article: Bush's escalation and the GOP]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]...neither Dubya nor his plan can be characterized as "Lincoln-esque".
The only appropriate word at this point is "grotesque": Characterized by distortions or striking incongruities in appearance, shape, manner, etc.; fantastic; bizarre; ludicrously eccentric or strange; ridiculous; absurd. (Thanks to my trusty old Webster's New World Dictionary -- it pretty well captures the Current Occupant!)
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Are these guys "surrender monkeys" too?
[Read the article: A "fool's errand" -- and a better way?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Let's all recall that absolutely childish front-page illustration in the New York Post that transformed James Baker and Lee Hamilton into bizarre mutant "surrender monkeys" after the official ISG report was issued. Wonder if we'll see anything similar in Rupert Murdoch's trashy tabloid after these truly distinguished military officers testified so candidly?
I've said it before -- how sad that we have no strong tradition in this country of resignation from high office on principle, as is common in Great Britain and elsewhere. How sad that people don't really take to heart the words they utter when taking an oath of office -- NO ONE serving in the executive branch swears allegiance to the PRESIDENT; they swear allegiance to this country and its Constitution. (Same for other federal branches, as well as state and local officials.)
How sad that principled people don't recognize the huge mistake of misplaced loyalty to a failed, misguided and destructive President.