When you claim:

"But it could also heighten the exhausted passivity, the resignation, and the sheer apathy that have marked America's response to the war."

I don't know what America you are living in, but I am surrounded by people who are sick to death of this war. Who are frustrated and sad, outraged and depressed. Fearful and hopeless. And who feel every day that they are powerless to make this nightmare end...and who are waiting with less hope than ever that their voices in Washington will end it for them.

NO! We are not resigned. We are not apathetic. We are not passive.

We are held hostage by this insane administration, and the rest of the government which is supposed to be of the people, by the people and for the people. But which has forgotten who the people are. And is failing miserably to represent and protect them.

where Gonzoles identified, acknowledged and corrected his mistakes before he moved on.

But I won't complain. We'll just have to make the best of the "moving on" part.

Let's hope Congress makes the best of it too, when they're confronted with a loyal, incompetent "Bushie" replacement.

Now they call it "national emergency".

This is my letter which was printed in the New York Times in immediate response to the op-ed of these brave men.

To the Editor:

Re “The War as We Saw It,” by Buddhika Jayamaha, Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck, Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier, Yance T. Gray and Jeremy A. Murphy

(Op-Ed, Aug. 19):

As the mother of two Iraq veterans, I particularly want to thank the seven courageous soldiers for their honest assessment of Iraq. Those of us who have had “blood in the game,” directly or indirectly, have known the truths

they told for some time.

But those truths are being trivialized, obscured and denied by the very people we have deputized to speak and act on our behalf in Washington. Like the issue of unsafe missions and inadequate equipment, it has taken the boots on the ground to speak up.

As an American, I want to thank them for their service to our country, and for looking out for our sons and daughters the way our commander in chief will not do ­ by painting an accurate picture of the failure of this administration to understand and manage this devastating war of choice.

President Bush claims he doesn’t want the war micromanaged by Congress. And yet he persists in allowing a select band of neocons to influence decisions based on his own self-serving agenda.

Let’s hope that some in Congress read the account of these men and feel that it’s time to listen to those whose vision is not clouded by politics, and whose lives are actually on the line.

It's the last sentence that matters most...and now,

in honor of their sacrifice, Congress owes it to them

to listen and act honorably and intelligently.

The last sentence of my letter printed in the NY Times responding to the op-ed of these brave men was:

"Let's hope some in Congress read the account of these men and feel it's time to listen to those whose vision is not clouded by politics, and whose lives are actually on the line."

From all accounts of the scripted and feebly challenged military theatre taking place in Washington, members of Congress still aren't listening to those voices willing to speak the truth.

At first I felt ill on hearing this latest news, and now I am crying over the loss of these soldiers with whom I feel kinship. I wonder how many on Capitol Hill will stop to grieve for them, or to even acknowledge their inconvenient deaths.

for the ambassador to Iraq, one of the two sent to Capitol Hill to sell the surge, to reply that he is unable to assess HIS situation, even as he asks for the status quo to be extended?

Is there anyone in this administration willing to even PRETEND for a moment that they have real responsibilities, and that those responsibilities require real insight and real analysis that lead to REAL ANSWERS? Not to mention unfiltered facts.

It's bad enough that Alberto Gonzales claimed to be completely out of the loop in his own department, and to reply "I don't recall" to virtually every question ever put to him. But the consequences of his equivocating and well, lying, were far less bloody (although not less significant).

To have this diplomatic heavy hitter shrug his shoulders and say that he "can't say"...is just ridiculous. And in the case of Iraq...criminally negligent of the oversight of our interests up to and including the lives we are losing there daily.