Boy, what a buch of knee-knuckeling whips. Bush has had a thumb in the eye of Congress, if not Americans, for six years. Bush and the V.P. of Torture are grining ear to ear over these weak kneed Senators trying hard to take a clear thinking stance without hurting Bush feelings; like he has any. Bush and company will react only when there is a clear and present danger that the Congress will impeach him if he doesn't play ball. Go for the groin guys, he does. Place a foot squarely into it. Return the favor. We may even find out where Cheney hides, undisclosed, while pulling the strings that actually run this rudder-less administration.

She's the same one who said that the Clinton administration never gave her a "plan" for terrorism, it was more like a "list of actionable items".

Seeing has how her stint as the National Security advisor resulted in the most significant breach of National Security in arguably our whole history, I don't get how anyone takes her seriously any more.

geez, why do people worry so much about this president's hurt feelings? why are they more important than the lives and countries he destroys?

If he's ever found to be the war criminal he is, will we ask Bill Gates to move out of his mansion so that Junior can be housed in a suitably august prison?

A Boob Job, which, of course, it is.

Your post is heartwrenchingly well spoken. The feelings expressed in it deserve the editors choice star. If it was your own experience, my sympathy is with you as it is with all those who lost loved ones in this totally unnecessary disaster.

Chas: I'm sure Locutus could explain this better than I could, but here goes:

The Congressional appropriations process is a blunt instrument. Cutting funding for the Iraq War does not mean using a scalpel to remove just the money for shipping out more troops. It means using a chain saw to chop into money for troops' pay, food, uniforms, weapons (of self-defense), health care, etc., etc., etc.

I have no doubt that if Congress tried to cut one penny of Defense Department appropriations - for anything - the Usurper would respond by letting soldiers and marines starve in the desert.

Even if Democrats could blunt the ensuing blame to them, do you really think there's a single Democrat willing to risk the health and safety of our troops?

Twenty-seven of them died in Iraq this weekend. At this rate, we'll hit 6,000 casualties before President Edwards takes office.

The only answer is impeachment - on the fast track.

"Just Fucking Around."

Democrats got elected because of the war; there's no refuting that. Sixty percent of the US public, most of our military and the rest of the world wants this war to stop (that means probably about 90% of Democratic voters). Yet the Democrats are too scared to do anything but criticize.

Shame on them; they have no principles and no respect for democracy. If they didn't already exist, Karl Rove would have to invent the current Democratic Party just to lull voters into believing the US is a democracy.

I just read Locutus's post, and got to thinking again about what was supposed to happen in this war.

I have no doubt that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove and Rumsfeld, all believed it was going to be a quick little war. Get in, get out, be heros. They had Chalabi all primed to be our new pal.

And, the funny thing is, they almost pulled it of. Had they left the Iraqi army and police intact, and left all the personnel in the various Ministries intact, they could have done it. Chalabi was a non-starter, probably, but someone else could have been found, especially if the Army had been left intact.

(the de-baathification will probably turn out to have been the single biggest mistake, the one on which everything else turns. Leave the Police, the Ministries and the Army alone, and you have victory. Instead, Bremer dismissed the thieves, and let in the murderers. Esp. in the Interior Ministry)

The whole thing was supposed to be different. When it turned into this impossible, terrible mess, the boys in the West Wing just didn't know what to do. They still don't, alas.

When the definitive history of this war is finally written, it'll be interesting to see just how it went off the rails. Why was Cheney so stupid to let Bremer disband the army? What was Rumsfeld thinking when he let that happen? Were they all totally deluded somehow?

These scumbags came very close to pulling off a truly beautiful political victory, with minimal loss and maximal gain. And they completely fucked it up.

This is why they're all so incredibly stubborn and hostile now. They're like little kids who didn't get to go to the fair. It all blew up in their faces...but they're not ready to admit that it did. I'm guessing Bush will go to his grave never admitting what he's done. Sad. For us. And it makes him, and Cheney, Evil with a capital *E*.

As the tag on Salon's main page put it in the link to this item, Congress should steal that memorable line from Nancy Reagan's old anti-drug program, and "JUST SAY NO" about this misbegotten war in Iraq.

If Democrats and enlightened Republicans in Congress can't find the backbone to do this NOW, when their power has reached a new high after years in the wilderness -- and when they are the FURTHEST from the distortion of the 2008 general election -- when can they?

If they won't do what's right, RIGHT NOW, whether it be substantive or merely symbolic, then they quite possibly deserve greater condemnation than Dubya. If the President were put on trial for war crimes right now, a credible defense could be mounted on the grounds of mental incompetence; the same cannot be claimed for those who vocally oppose Bush's escalation, but fail to DO anything else.

"Escalation" implies a provocative decision to ramp up involvement and change the strategic standing of your army. It takes your engagement to a whole new level. Clearly, this President has not decided to engage more decisively in Iraq, to mobilize the full weight of the United States, to move this conflict to state where it more directly impacts the full populace. Instead, The Decider has decided to throw a token effort into the abbatoir to delay the inevitable just long enough that the helicopters airlifting the last Americans out of Baghdad report to some other guy and not him.

This isn't an escalation. It's a cynical political charade.