We now know of at least two US Representatives - see
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2002366&mesg_id=2008129 - who are suggesting that * wake up to the reality that it is over and to order the troops home.
http://www.conyersblog.us/Sunday, August 14th, 2005
Someone Tell the President the War is Over
Frank Rich Does it Again
As is customary, first thing Sunday I read Frank Rich's Sunday New York Times Op-Ed Column. Thankfully, his vacation is over, as he again puts his finger on the pulse of exactly what is going on, this time in Iraq.
Frank begins by noting that the president has lost his credibility on the War, his latest approval rate for its handling is down to 32%.
Than he explains how even the right wing cable cabal is beginning to question the war's management. When O'Reilly criticizes Rumsfeld, you know you have problems.
He next goes through some of the myriad of lies and mistatements that got us into this mess -- all too easy to do -- tying the lies in a speech made in Cincinatti before the war, to Major Hackett's near win the the reddest of the congressional disctricts, and the tragic loss of life in the suburban Cleveland batallion two weeks ago.
He observes that it is against this backdrop that Cindy Sheehan's courageous stand is able to resonate so strongly with so many Americans.
He closes by noting that another phony deadline or military offensive will not change anything in our desparate efforts to avoid sinking into civil war, and that the military deadlines will be fixed by the political deadlines in America -- next year's mid-term elections.
The entire op-ed is worth a read and reflection.
While I am at it, the NYT editorials have a good piece on the ongoing tragedy in Niger. Hillary Anderson wrote a seminal piece on this ongoing tragedy that we cannot lose sight of.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/opinion/14sun2.htmlBlogged by JC on 08.14.05 @ 09:34 AM ET
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/14/opinion/14rich.htmlSomeone Tell the President the War Is Over
By FRANK RICH
Published: August 14, 2005
LIKE the Japanese soldier marooned on an island for years after V-J Day, President Bush may be the last person in the country to learn that for Americans, if not Iraqis, the war in Iraq is over. "We will stay the course," he insistently tells us from his Texas ranch. What do you mean we, white man?
A president can't stay the course when his own citizens (let alone his own allies) won't stay with him. The approval rate for Mr. Bush's handling of Iraq plunged to 34 percent in last weekend's Newsweek poll - a match for the 32 percent that approved L.B.J.'s handling of Vietnam in early March 1968. (The two presidents' overall approval ratings have also converged: 41 percent for Johnson then, 42 percent for Bush now.) On March 31, 1968, as L.B.J.'s ratings plummeted further, he announced he wouldn't seek re-election, commencing our long extrication from that quagmire.
But our current Texas president has even outdone his predecessor; Mr. Bush has lost not only the country but also his army. Neither bonuses nor fudged standards nor the faking of high school diplomas has solved the recruitment shortfall. Now Jake Tapper of ABC News reports that the armed forces are so eager for bodies they will flout "don't ask, don't tell" and hang on to gay soldiers who tell, even if they tell the press.
The president's cable cadre is in disarray as well. At Fox News Bill O'Reilly is trashing Donald Rumsfeld for his incompetence, and Ann Coulter is chiding Mr. O'Reilly for being a defeatist. In an emblematic gesture akin to waving a white flag, Robert Novak walked off a CNN set and possibly out of a job rather than answer questions about his role in smearing the man who helped expose the administration's prewar inflation of Saddam W.M.D.'s. (On this sinking ship, it's hard to know which rat to root for.)
more....
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