Letters to the Editor
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What is the Role of Congress
What is the role of Congress when the President demonstrates six years of continuous and total failure and incompetence?
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Convocation?
It's time for a fucking impeachment!
That's what time it is.
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More and faster, my foot.
Bush wants to drag this out until someone else can take over. This administration lives in horror of the possibility that when we withdraw from Iraq...nothing will happen. No chaos, no bloodbath. Think about it: why would Bush care if there's a bloodbath in Iraq once we pull out? He gives not one tiny shit for the life of an Iraqi and he'd be able to rant at the Dems, "Look what you caused!!" He should be happy to let the Dems "micromanage" the war and make things worse -- if that's really what he thinks would happen. So, the actions don't fit the logic. What they do fit is an acknowledgment of the reality that we are the problem over there, not the solution -- and that this may become agonizingly apparent when we withdraw and the dust settles.
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Body counts
One of the most infuriating arguments I hear out of the mouths of Bush supporters is something to the effect of "Compared to Vietnam or World War II, the number of casualties in Iraq is actually pretty low.", as if to point out that it's going pretty well.
First, Iraq isn't anywhere near done, though it could be. Unfortunately, Bush wants to have some sort of legacy. Second, WWII was not only an easily justifiable war, but incredibly larger in scope. Third, they talk as if the 3,332 lives don't mean all that much, and then talk out of the other side of the mouth about "supporting the troops".
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at this rate,
all that will be left will be Iraqi soldiers...
I guess "surge" as in "surge in death" suits the idiology of these nihiists.
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De facto Hierarchy of Death (& Life??)
The murders at Virginia Tech are rightly regarded as a national tragedy.
Mr. Olbermann pointed out that (notwithstanding that tragedy, and with no intent to diminish its unspeakable horror and impact) that the same toll of American lives is taken every 10 days in Iraq.
I explicitly point out the contrast which Keith left eloquently implicit: issues of class and race pervade the media coverage and apparent national concern of these two stories. The deaths in Iraq are no less a national tragedy because they happen a bit more slowly. The deaths in Iraq are no less a national tragedy because they happen to kids who come from families that are a bit less affluent. The deaths in Iraq are no less a national tragedy because they happen to kids who are slightly less educated, or slightly less likely to be white. Where is the 24/7 coverage? Where is the nationally televised convocation? Where is the frightened, deeply personal horror and outrage? Where is the urgent demand for explanation and understanding?
I extend this contrast to the epidemic of violent death in our cities. The AP reports that Philadelphia’s murder rate rose to 1 per day for 2007. These deaths are no less a tragedy because they are a product of structural poverty or pervasive drug crime. Again the toll is the same, only the frequency changes: one day of insanity in Blacksburg, ten days of a misguided war of our choice in Iraq, one month of business as usual in the same city where our nation’s Constitution was drafted. Where is the outrage?
(Off topic: Thank you Mr. Halberstam, Vaya con Dios.)
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What is our responsibility?
One of the sad ironies of the liberal call for a pullout is that my fellow progessives fail to remember our obligation in rebuilding a country that we destroyed in a fortnight. I couldn't agree more with appeals for the discontinuation of current strategies, for the removal of neocon policymakers, and for the cessation of hostilities. But of paramount importance is a firmly stated commitment to rebuilding what we've leveled.
We'll encourage more support from local leaders and civilians if we can help ensure that the lights will be on every day or that ordinary folks can go grocery shopping without fear of being blown up. How do we fulfill this very important responsibility without guaranteeing some measure of security? No one wants continued violence and death, and sadly US military actions continue to fuel resentment and ensure that more unrest is coming. So change is needed immediately.
Yet we can't walk away from this civil war. We can't leave the country in shambles for someone more dangerous (than the Bushies) to reconstruct. In the ongoing analogies with Vietnam and WWII, look at the success of the Marshall Plan in rebuilding Western Europe and how that generated general goodwill vs. the incredible neglect that we inflicted on Southeast Asia after a decade of war and no reconstruction effort.
Part of the Democratic stragey to "win the war in Iraq" must be an inclusion of reconciliation, diplomacy and nation-building. The Bush administration's singular reliance on the war department to serve as its ambassador to the world has not achieved an ounce of success, but Democrats' calls for total withdraw are equally short-sighted and would prove similarly disastrous for the post-Iraq war world.
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When will the flags be flown at half staff for our war dead?
As a Vietnam vet I am sad and angry each time I drive past a post office and see the flag of the United States lowered to half staff for the shooting victims at VT.
It's not that their deaths are not worth national attention, but we lose that many fine men and women and more each month. The lowering of our flag for murder victims is problematic.
In the first place, how many victims warrants a flag lowering? For 9/11, it was 3,000. But over 3,000 soldiers have been killed not because they just happened to be standing around, but because they were in uniform, and they obeyed orders and put themselves at risk without question. So now we are down to 32 as the number of murdered being the threshold for flag tipping.
What's next, a post office shooting with 15 victims? Ten? How about seven? Should we lower the nation's flag for seven?
Let's just leave the flag at half staff until Bush leaves office.
That would be a fitting memorial for all the people who have died because the American people made one great big stupid choice.