represent all that's best and brightest in America today. That they and others like them will be sacrificed on the altar of political hubris because American POLITICIANS (and yes, I include the apparently fear-addled Democrats in that number)are too frightened to do what is morally right is a sickening legacy to bequeath posterity.

We've been through this all before. Do we need another 50,000 names etched in black granite in order to recognize our mistake? Have we, after all, learned NOTHING from our history?

End this war. Bring these heroes back alive to their homes and loved ones.

“The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue” -- Mao Tse Tung

What part of this is hard to understand? In a guerrilla conflict, OF COURSE the insurgents will flow away from a concentration of opposing forces. They're not there to commit suicide by fighting trained soldiers on equal terms, after all. It therefore naturally follows that where troop levels are highest insurgent activity is low, ergo the "surge" works in part. It also DOESN'T work, in that where force levels are low (and they can't be high everywhere, all the time) insurgent activity increases.

This is the nature of guerilla warfare and this is a lesson we've already been taught-- and which our leaders and our media appear to have conveniently forgotten.

I can't speak for the rest of America, but I can tell you why I-- a dyed in the wool Democrat since I first walked precincts for McGovern and who would sooner cut off my left nut than vote for a Republican-- am disgusted with this Congress.

It's the courage, stupid. Or rather, the lack thereof. The vast majority of the folks in this country agree that this war is pointless, fruitless and not worth the lives spent thus far and this Congress-- a majority of them Dems elected with a mandate to end this bloody madness-- can't muster the stones to tell the mad dauphin "No More!"

All this finger-in-the-air-to-test-which-way-the-wind-might-blow triangulation hasn't lead to better poll ratings. How about you do what we pay you for and TAKE A BLOODY STAND ON SOMETHING!!!!

I'd settle for anything at this point. But stand tall for something and don't back down. Don't apologize, don't equivocate, don't waffle. Either stand tall or stand down and admit that the Republicans will rule forever because we can't summon the necessary backbone to do it.

so little substance.

No wonder our Republic is going down the toilet. What's next? A Hottest Self-Congratulatory A-Holes Contest?

Ooops. Looks like that's already been covered.

Will these "rally squads" be issued brown shirts? Or lovely red armbands, perhaps embossed with a nifty black "R" for Republican?

And if shouting "USA" gets old, why not just chant the Horst Wessel song instead?

And noted that they quote a CNN/Gallup poll showing 72% of Americans oppose the war. Yet the Democrats can't seem to find the intestinal fortitude, despite a majority in Congress, to do ANYTHING to force a conclusion?

With this kind of namby-pamby gutless "leadership" (and I use the term loosely) in opposition, I fear that we will have another 4 years of Republican presidency to look forward to in 2008, as the public reacts in disgust to a weak and rudderless Democratic Party.

our troops are being made to suffer through and re-learn the rough and bloody lessons of fighting a guerrilla conflict. Judging from his bizarre, flawed analogy, the A-hole In Chief clearly never learned a damned thing, either from fighting in one-- since he so neatly avoided serving in just such a conflict himself-- or from his erstwhile, vacuous "analysis" after the fact.

Here's hoping he follows through with his recission of his resignation. What a great opportunity for the Dems to hammer again and again on the GOP as the party of hypocrisy and sleaze for as long as he continues to occupy the public stage!

Can you just imagine? From the party that gave you Mark Foley--Larry Craig redux!

Hey, if you're screwy enough to wait in line in front of the store, slavering to be one of the first possessors of any new tech, you get what you deserve, IMO. And that usually means high prices and less performance... But hey, you were among the FIRST.

It really isn't a stunner that over time the price of the new stuff declines while the quality generally improves. What never ceases to amaze is how few seem able to remember this simple notion.

I'm sitting here trying to parse out exactly when MY Democratic Party-- you know, the one that gave us FDR and Truman and John F. Kennedy (and hell, RFK, Eugene McCarthy and George McGovern, guys who actually stood for something regardless of the odds)-- metamorphosed into this current mess of spineless blow-hard weather vanes.

I am frustrated beyond words that, even with a majority in both Houses, my party cannot seem to muster a united, determined, visceral, righteous and ultimately defensible position on the burning issue of our time-- OR ANY ISSUE OF NOTE-- against arguably the worst administration in the entire history of this country.

I want my vote to stand for something again. I want my leaders to for once and all put country above politics, even if that means we go down swinging. I want my Democrats to say "Enough!" and mean it. I want my party back.