The “New York Times’” David Sanger, their White House guy, wrote a piece headlined, “In Strong Words, Bush Tries to Redirect Debate on Iraq,” in which the president calls his opponents traitors. This is not news at all and Sanger knows it. The death of a thousand trees made pulp for this press release are on his conscience.
The (p)resident, as is his wont, gave a speech in front of a bunch of soldiers and basked in standing ovations, his favorite pastime and conception of dissent-less democracy.
“We have,” w. said, “A responsibility to our men and women in uniform, who deserve to know that once our politicians vote to send them into harm’s way, our support will be with them in good days and in bad days.”
Bullshit.
Just a few days earlier the “Washington Post” ran yet another story on the inadequate armor these guys were sent into war with.
The (p)resident’s love for the troops preluded him having a real plan for occupying Iraq. It hasn’t prevented him from vacationing more than any other American president, whilst asking the boys and girls he honors so much for extended tours and postponed decommissioning.
His sanctification of the military class is unnecessary. They are capable of understanding that the reasons for combat are still a matter of debate. They debate them as well, if recent polls showing a loss of support for the war among the enlisted, are any measure.
And they are imperfect as any of us.
If the scribe lacked a sense of decency, he’d link you up to some of the soldiers’ Web pages and blogs where the photos of Iraqi men with brains spilling from their shattered skulls are usually accompanied with written narratives full of what, shall we say, is not thought of the highest human type.
Bush told the veterans, “The vast majority of Iraqis prefer freedom with intermittent power, to life in the permanent darkness of tyranny and terror.”
The (p)resident is always long on ringing words and short on facts and authentic sentiment. As he dispassionately noted just a few days ago, 30,000 to 35,000 Iraqis have died in his little scapatella.
It’s appropriate for a man of Bush’s colossal insensitivity to divine the sentiment of another nation’s citizens, but a more relevant question might be: Would you rather live in tyranny or darkness, or get your brain dashed against the windshield while driving your family through a checkpoint?
In another “Washington Post” piece, the writer picked up a quote from the same speech that either Sanger or his editors chose to forego: “But [Bush] termed irresponsible, ‘the partisan critics who claim that we acted in Iraq because of oil, or because of Israel, or because we misled the American people’.”
w.’s free to call the highway scribe whatever he wants, but here goes: “You went to war because of the vital economic, and geopolitical significance Iraqi oil reserves represent to the United States (as currently constituted). Furthermore, you lied by confiding in those you govern that the leader of that country possessed the means to wipe out any American city he chose. And that with the help of Saudi terrorists you’ve never actually linked to that leader.”
Now, you tell the scribe what truly inspires the angry insurgent in Fallujah more: the chemical agent that suffocated his friend to death, the armored vehicle that ran his kid over, or someone far away pointing out gaping holes in the administration’s war policy.
You don’t stop criticizing someone who went to war because he went to war and now you’re undermining the war.
Be a hero. Undermine it.
Set a timetable and begin pulling these men and women out. There is no cowardice and no defeatism in this. Simply common sense and realpolitik as men like Bush and Co., are used to applying the world over.
And here’s a little more dissent. One of the guys you sent off to die came from a base here in California:
Governor Schwarzenegger today released the following statement regarding the death of Sgt. Adam L. Cann of Davie, Fl.
“Californians owe a debt of gratitude to the brave men and women who risk their lives in service of their country. Sgt. Cann gave his life upholding the ideals of this nation and his sacrifice reminds us of the dangers faced on all of our behalf every day. Maria and I send our sympathies to Adam’s family as they mourn the loss of a beloved and noble Marine.”
Cann, 23, died Jan. 5, from injuries sustained when a suicide bomber attacked an Iraqi police recruitment center in Ar Ramadi, Iraq. He was assigned to Security Battalion, Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, CA. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, his unit was attached to the 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force.
In honor of Sgt. Cann, Capitol flags will be flown at half-staff.
There should be no greater outrage, not over criticism of the policy, not over treading upon the Imperial Presidency lodged in Bush’s mined, than over the death of these men and women and way it happens.
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On this date in 1912 the International Workers of the World began its “bread and roses” strike in Lawrence, Mass.
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