Letters to the Editor
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Talk is cheap
While I will be the first to admit that the strong words expressed today in the committee are a welcome change from when the Republicans were in power in Congress, talk is cheap. What we heard today will be nothing more than political grandstanding, if the Congress does not take action to use the power of the purse to defund the escalation and, as Feingold said, defund the war in a way that forces Bush to either bring the troops home or shut down the government.
At this point, I have confidence that Feingold is willing to defund the war, but not much that anyone else will follow his lead.
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On another front, there is something we can all do today. MoveOn.org and America Says No are holding literally hundreds of rallies tonight to protest Bush's escalation plan. The rallies represent one of our last chances to convince our representatives that we mean busniness about ending the war. If our reps are wavering, we can help give them a spine by turning out in droves today.
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Only bad choices possible now....
Basically we are at the position where there are no good choices, and we have been in this position for a long time. The only question is which of many truly bad choices is the best which can be made.
Cutting through the bleep -- the real situation in Bagdad is very simple. The duly elected government of Iraq is in bed with Madhi-army extremists and Sadr's factions. The government has no real intent of reining them in.
Bush intends starting an urban guerilla war, inside Bagdad, with an additional 16,000 troups... to supress these factions.
How can anybody think that this will work, or have an exit strategy, or avoid creating a huge number of new anti-american terrorists?
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Irony
Last night's speech and today's performance by Secretary Rice seem to indicate that even though the words the administration is saying don't admit defeat, they have largely accepted it. Bush had no swagger and Rice appeared simply baffled trying to explain the administration's plan.
With Republican Senators seeming to jump from the ship as well, we're looking at perhaps the weakest president since Ford. Bush has the support of maybe 1/3 of the Senate now, it would seem (we've heard less from House members so far, but I can't imagine he has much more support there). For a president intent on radically expanding the power of the presidency, it's looking like he's about to become nearly impotent to do much of anything. He lost the Democrats long ago, and he's losing his party now.
The man who wished to strengthen the presidency may well end up being the man who significantly weakens it.
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All I Can Do is Shake My Head.
When it comes to this war, this administration, and this populace I can do nothing more than hang my head. As a 26 six-year-old man on the verge of having a child I often contemplate both my role, and the cultures role, in the future of our nation. We live in a pass the buck, sue happy country, where our only responsibility is to make sure as little as possible is our responsibility. I watched an embarassing moron talk to my nation as though it were filled with children who can't comprehend beyond black or white; as though everything, including this war, is that simple. People often complain about Bush's lack of proper speech, but I wouldn't mind it if he had the vocabulary and intellectual capacity to think beyond such simple ideas.
I am most angered by how they pass the blame off to Iraq's governemtn and citizens. Iraq was never, and more than likely never will be, Switzerland. Yet the administartion, the congress, and the media as a whole have some how managed to blame them for the instability and war-torn state of their nation. I liken it to a wife beater who lashes out over his wife's inability to properly prepare a souffle. Democracy is a delicate balancing act, not something that is forced upon people in a moments notice at the barrell of a gun. That's called facism, but I guess when facism is about economic security and historical legacy, and maybe even kicking off the rapture, you can call it democracy.
As for the "We got to win this one" morons I heard on the radio while driving in to work this morning, I ask: Win What? What is their to win? What can we possibly gain? Will a friend in the region guarantee our security? Can I expect to start receiving flowers from random Iraqi's once the war is over? It seems to me that the middle East is the last region America has yet to fully exploit via capitalism, you know the real American export and acheivement. Maybe once Baghdad is covered in coffee shops, Taco Bells, and cheap labor we will have won.
I ask, where are my country men? Where are the criticizers who never sleep at night? Not the edgy centrist commentators over on Air America (Cause when I think radicalism, I think Al Fraken.), but the fist wavers in Congress, the never satisfied, ideology challenging, fire breathing commentators this world needs now more than ever. Lord knows as my head shakes, I'm strapping on my boots and heading out.
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Military solutions
If what we're waiting for in Iraq is an Iraqi army, security force, whatever you want to call it, that can effectively fight the insurgency in our absence, then we're saying that we expect the fighting to continue after we're gone. If, in the best case scenario, we were to suddenly find that the Iraqi military is strong enough to take over, then how long will it be before someone in that military will rise to the top and take over, and we'll once again see a beribboned monster taking over in that country? It's going to be Saddam all over again, and that's our best-case scenario? I say get out now when both sides are weak; maybe they'll find common ground and a political, rather than a military, solution.
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Are you ready, boots? Start walking.
Whenever Bush or Rice or Cheney or any of their many political hacks speak about Iraq, I can't help but think of some lines from that old Nancy Sinatra song
You keep lyin' when you oughtta be truthin',
You keep losin' when you oughtta not bet,
You keep samin' when you oughtta be changing,
Now what's right is right, but you ain't been right yet.