On Veteran's Day, I think of the waste of young life that has happened thanks to George W Bush and his handlers. I reflect also on the violence and massive loss of life and home to the people living in Iraq.
The post title today represents the home-made sticker I've had on my truck's rear window since before "Mr I'm the Decider" marched us all off to war. While a majority of Americans went along with that move, some of us protested from the beginning, including US Reps Sherrod Brown and Dennis Kucinich among the few and the brave.
Four years later, having suffered too many losses of young men and women, and many more injured in horrific ways, and with daily news of no progress amid mounting chaos, the majority stood up and said NO to staying the course. Simplistic is all we ever got from this mistake of a president and his manipulators. With Democratic control of house and senate, can we get away from the either/or of Stay the Course
vs. Cut and Run?
How about -- Clean Up the Mess as a new phrase to deal with our simple-minded president? Iraq is in terrible condition. US presence makes it worse. Who among the planet's citizens can make a difference in Iraq? We need negotiators in there with promises of real help to build up the infrastructure -- that must be agreed upon by the Sunnis, the Shiites and the Kurds. This isn't going to be easy and in the end, the three groups might decide to blow each other up until nothing's left -- the old reach-rock-bottom syndrome taken to the extreme.
How will the Dems be able to steer our country in this direction of negotiation rather than that of military occupation? The generals are re-examining their strategies now that Rumsfeld is going out to pasture. In an article in today's Washington Post, Marine Gen. Peter Pace (chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) says
"Winning, to me, is simply having each of the nations that we're trying to help have a secure environment inside of which their government and people can function."
The article point out that this is a departure from the current administration's definition of "winning" which is building a democracy in Iraq. You can bomb a civilization to bits, but you can't make it drink from the democracy well if it doesn't want to.
Now Bush dregs up another of his dad's old cronies with ties to the Iran-Contra scandal, Robert Gates. It is indicative of Bush Jr's inability to look forward to find new people with intelligence and creative minds who might provide a way out of the Bush Mess we are in now.
I've read some comments here and there across the internet implying that one way the Dems can apply brakes to the war machine is to withhold funding for the war effort. I can't remember where I found the remarks, so I did a Google search and found most references were on right wing publications (here) and here leading up to the election.
If that is the tactic conservatives fear the most, then the Dems might well go for it. I've also been reading that congressional approval of warrantless wiretapping is dead in the water -- hooray! The brakes are being applied. Let us hope we are not too late to end the war and focus on solving problems not creating more.
Ladesbet Giriş
2 weeks ago
2 comments:
I noticed your blog at Washingtonpost.com today. It seems we both blogged on and linked to the same article. In our own ways, we both approach this mess in a similar, though not identical take. It's high time we get out. And many of the options remaining open to the US are not the most desirable to reach a satisfactory conclusion -- if there ever can be one -- to Bush's folly. Thanks for the interesting read. I'll be loking for more of your posts.
Jade at The Rational Inquirer
(http://the-rational-inquirer.blogspot.com)
THE WORST OF WORST (PER RUMSFELD)
Upon invasion or rebellion
So Congress may suspend
Habeas corpus--no medallion
Of freedom, I contend:
It is the utter substance of
Our free society
To have such law--but people love
Not so much being free.
Rather so many as adhere
Unto a kind of cult
Of personality, appear
To find law worth assault:
"Whom we declare ´the worst of worst,´ "
These are the words they say,
"We may deal with them as we durst
Or spirit them away."
These are the satisfied cabal
If not "above the law"
Outside the law are in--appall
My heart that final straw.
"Outside so we are in" declares
That crew: "Whom we proclaim
´Worst of the worst,´ without shed tears
We may treat as ´fair game.´
(Believing ourselves righteous far
Above the common run,
We are the law, and set the par
According to what´s done.)"
Thus slips into the lexicon
A new phrase, "disappear one."
The law as it is newly spun
Provides no means to clear one
When on him is suspicion set:
"We take the key and lose it,
Nor relatives, or since or yet
Hear peeps from that locked closet.
At first it was just foreigners
We claimed ´the worst of worst´ is,
Yet now to citizens adheres
This habeas interstice."
Thus is the case presented while
The masses ignorantly smile--
Cult membership so pleases them
As habeas slips they haw and hem
Absurdly glad, or in denial--
It´s so much easier to condemn
The "worst of worst" when there´s no trial!
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