1 Boring Old Man

I usually try to reference things I read when I talk about them, but this time, I’m going it on my own. There are multiple foci of activity within the Democratic Party, particularly in the House of Representatives, trying to figure out a way to go around President Bush on Iraq and begin to get us out of there. And Bush and Cheney are ignoring all of them. The mantras vary, but always include "winning," "completing the mission," "supporting the troops," "freeing the Iraqi people," and "not constraining our commanders." Their mantras never mention "occupation."

• There is a general consensus that we should never have undertaken this war in the first place. It was sold to us as a war of national defense based on falsehoods, and the dire weapons we went to destroy were not there.
• The conversion of this war into a war of liberation [Operation Iraqi Freedom] was a disguise for the real reasons – "regime change" and "oil." The "regime change" has been accomplished, albeit in the middle of a religious civil war as old as Islam – a civil war we unleashed.
• It then became a war against the insurgency – which has turned out to be something else, a civil war and a war against our being there.
• This is a war of occupation – always has been.

So back to my point. The Democrats need to carry on with the end of this war with no thought about what the President, the Vice President, or the Secretary of State say or do – up to and including impeachment of the entire Executive Branch of our government. Appeasing them, or negotiating with them is a waste of time. Their goals, whatever they are, have nothing to do with our national goals. Dr. Rice said Sunday that Congress shouldn’t micromanage the War in Iraq. I agree. Congress should end this war immediately. And if that means ending the reign of George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Dr. Rice, so be it.

We shouldn’t have gone to Iraq. We shouldn’t have stayed in Iraq. We shouldn’t be in Iraq now. Supporting Our Troops only means bringing them home or redeploying them to Afghanistan where we do have a mission. We’ve ignored and sacraficed our troops and supported our Administration. It’s time to reverse that equation – ignore and sacrafice our Administration and support our troops. Stop even listening to Bush or Cheney or Rice. They’re still crazy after all these years…

Nancy Pelosi is kinder than I am:

PELOSI: I think he believes he is on the right course even though the facts on the ground speak to a different reality. And I just don’t know, but I don’t think he’s getting good advice. I think that he is receiving advice that is wrong, has been from the start. I think they thought when they went in the first day, that it was going to end in one strike — they take out Saddam Hussein and they would have a great victory.

The fact is, even if they had, they would still be faced with all of this civil strife in Iraq that they have now. They did not know what they were getting into. They do not know the damage that they have caused. And I think the judge — his judgment is severely impaired on this war, with all due respect to the president and his good intentions.