The Bush neocon empire is collapsing. Most Americans now oppose the war. Most Americans think Dubya is a liar. The rot is probably terminal, the end probably near. Even his supposed allies want nothing to do with him.
In the red state of Arizona, Republican congressman J.D. Hayworth was asked the other day whether he would welcome Bush’s help on the stump; he replied, "In a word, no." And last Tuesday, Senate Republicans rebuked the White House by requesting in an amendment that Bush’s war team become more accountable to the chamber.
His power is ebbing. It won’t come back. Here’s a Polizeros prediction. Bush will not last out his term.
So that’s means great things for the Dems, right? Well, not really. Polls have shown the evaporating support for Republicans has not translated into gains for the Democrats. Which is not surprising considering they are no different on the war, and, um, have been known to lie a bit themselves.
If the Dems genuinely opposed the war, they would have called the Republican bluff yesterday and voted en masse to bring the troops home now. But instead, there were a mere three Yes votes, these from Representatives McKinney, Serrano, Wexler. Hey, that’s some kind of iron resolve the Dems have, you betcha. Sheesh.
The US is losing the war. This fact is finally, dimly, being recognized by the rulers. And they don’t know what to do. You see, this wasn’t in their plans. They were going to grab control of the Middle East and the oil, waltzing in as grateful Iraqis tossed roses in their paths. Instead, those ungrateful upstarts fought back.
Remember back in the quaint early days when the insurgents were only throwing rocks and the occasional grenade? Now there’s hundreds of thousands of them, they are well-armed, growing in numbers fast, and no matter how skilled Pentagon liars spin it, the insurgents are winning and the US is losing. Meanwhile at home, Plamegate, which is just more blowback from the war, has badly damaged the Bush Administration and will unquestionably inflict much more.
Will the Democrats who replace Dubya do any differently? Will they reverse the decades-long US foreign policy goal of hegemony over the Middle East? Will they bring the troops home?
Only if the people force them too. There’s been thousands of protests and vigils these past few years opposing the Iraq war. They’ve had a huge effect. Congress would not be debating the war had they not happened. Let’s keep the pressure on and keep organizing.
Tag: Valerie Plame
Are you actually buying into the stunt the GOP pulled yesterday? How can you possibly attribute anything to the 403-3 vote??
The GOP introduced the resolution- it had utterly nothing to do with Murtha’s proposal. TGhey worded it as outrageously as possible to say we love America, you hate it. So of course everyone voted against it. Perhaps you should read the resolution and what really happened before using that charade as evidence of anything but absurd right wing posturing.
The 3 who voted for it were wingnut Dems who wanted to make their own statements.
You are laboring under the misconception that Democrats aren’t gaining from independents and moderates. They are. The sources of the low ratings of congressional Dems are people like yourself who will vote for them anyway. No offense intended. Now I read this stuff on Daily Kos and MyDD you should check it out. You also seem to think that the sham resolution was a real resolution. Exactly what the repugnicans were hoping for.
No, I’m saying the Dems should have voted YES anyway, and shown real resolve to bring the troops home, not that any of them actually want to (except three.)
Not fighting back against the Republican ploy was just one more example of Dem spinelessness. Instead they caved. As usual.
Nor am I a Democrat. I’m registered Peace and Freedom, my politics are radical left and I’ve helped organize dozens of antiwar actions here in LA including all of the mass march and rally protests.
Because people in the streets is what finally gets their attention.
I agree that the Dems should have called their bluff and voted for Hunters’s resolution. They would have lost but cages would have been rattled like never before. They blew it.
What the hell is this? Some wierd kind of fundamentalism? Do you live in some sort of ivory tower?
Take it from someone who has lived in the political trenches. You pick your fights and you win the winnable and jolly fuck all with the others. When there is a real principle involved you go down in flames if you have to but this had no real principle involved. It was NOT about ending the war.
This was a stupid stunt and the only way to expose it was to vote NO and to oppose it vigorously.
The measure was worded that the troops be removed immediately. I sure wish I could wave a wand and have them disappear but it is not only morally but physically impossible.
I am not sure what Murtha’s “redeployment” really means but it did call for an orderly removal of troops off of the bloody ground of Bushwhacked Iraq. This measure was pure bullshit and a cheap trick and what was the soundbite that came out of it? Looney Jean Schmidt making them look like the assholes they are.
Only Bush could make such a perfectly miserable place more miserable than it had been. The only thing he is good at is failure.
Oops! I’m sorry, Bob. I didn’t know you were Peace and Freedom. I am a more or less happy resident of the reality based world.
As a one time (long time) Californian who knew many Peace and Freedom persons (was even married to one once) and who saw how successful politically they were, I retract my attempt to inject some sanity into the conversation.
I don’t believe Peace and Freedom ever even won a Berkely seat so getting and giving political advice is silly. Forgive me!
If U C the Big Picture, the Big Bang Theory, et al
” You never change things by fighting the existing reality…
To change something…
Build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. ”
Buckminster Fuller
—————–
Instead of Changing What Is…
Help Create Something New In the World…
A Global Network of People and Community Centers…
In Every Community… All Connected Together…
All Around Planet Earth…
——
Longer Turm C
http://www.OneGlobalCommunity.com
Shorter Turm C
http://www.TheBuffaloParty.com
Thank U, Roger@RogerART.com
.
You fell into the Republican trap. Thankfully most people (and surprisingly enough, the media) saw through the sham. I am proud of Murtha, and very, very proud of my party.
The truth is that too many Dems, mods, and indies are still conflicted. People are now seeing or beginning to comprehend that this war was lost before the first shot was fired. Torture, white phosphorous, and more lies cannot change the outcome. We have the power.
The truth will rise and the powerful(whomever they may be) will fall.
That is a spurious statement. Democrats have continually offered alternatives, over and over. They were offered at the 2004 elections. They are offered continually on the floors of Congress. They were offered when Clinton was office. They have been offered over and over and over but most Americans want to have their cake and to eat it too (tax cuts but more services, absolute security with less freedom, etc.). Or they just don’t want to think or pay attention. We prefer to live in Hollywoodland, thinking problems in America and the world can be solved by fictional stereotyped “heroes” (think Ahnold in Cali) in two hours or less. We lump the a-hole conservatives in with all representatives. I just don’t think Americans know what we want. Hell: most of us don’t even vote! The average American thinks ‘politics is boring but I want my politicians to do something that makes me happy in every aspect! Throw the bums out… and elect some bright, shiny bums!’
I’m not a democrat or a republican.
I’m a citizen of the “United” States in America.
We need to form a new government.
Were you just not paying attention? This was a low-handed ploy on the part of Republicans to slap down the Democrats for making them look bad.
It was a ridiculous bastardization of Murtha’s amendment. Murtha didn’t call for the immediate withdrawal, no matter how the dickless press characterized it.
But true to the Bizarro-world of politics that we have found ourselves in the last five years, this decorated and respected veteran was smeared for asking for a PLAN and a smart and timely withdrawal of our troops.
What the Dems need to do now is get back in the faces of all these Republicans saying “We’re going to stay until the job is done” and demand that they define what that means. When is “Mission Accomplished” really accomplished? When is the job done? When there are no terrorists? (Good luck with that one–should we just bomb the entire Middle East into oblivion–Saudi Arabia and Israel included?) When there are elections (great, that’s scheduled for next month–let’s get a withdrawal plan in order then)? When there are standing Iraqi troops? (Well, here we run into a problem–we have fewer now than we did last year. What incentive do the Iraqis have to be insurgent targets when the US troops will fill in so nicely?)
The Dems need to yell it to the rooftops. It’s not that the DEMS don’t have a plan. The WHITE HOUSE HAS NO PLAN OR EXIT STRATEGY. When the Dems are in charge of Congress and/or the White House, complaining of a lack of plan will be valid. Right now, everything they try to do gets smacked down.
The REPS are in charge. Make them get to work.
I’m registered Peace and Freedom because they are the only at least nominally socialist party with ballot status in California, and I think socialists have lots of good ideas. As a party, P&F is inactive, I agree.
My real work is with the ANSWER Coalition where I’ve helped organize numerous rallys, meetings, protests, etc. over the past 3 1/2 years, including marches that drew tens of thousands of people.
Having read all the comments it makes me sad that in spite of all that has happened and is happening so many of you still put your faith and hope in a party system that is inextricably welded to the corporate greed machine.. It is not a fix that the sytem needs it is a total dismantle and rebuild. Bring your issues on to the streets, to send your representative to the big house and he will be sucked into the stinking sewer.
In my opinion, the Democrats would sweep the elections if they would simply by adopting a very much-needed platform of reform with the SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE. The Bush Administration has completely dismissed that very important part of our Constitution! If the Dems would unite on this issue, they would be far more successful.
Oh how I wish I shared the vision. From my perspective, however, it looks like while the administration is indeed collapsing, there is zero effective leadership and positive advocacy on the left. My major concern at this point is that, once again, we will snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
I too am proud of Murtha and proud the Republicans did not fall into the game the Republicans made of this.
Nice to see how seriously they take the lives of our soldiers.
When they have someone as respected as Murtha telling them what they need to hear and they decide to play political chess ( more like checkers) actually) all should take note.
Deomcrats will sweep 06 because they aren’t Republicans. Although I’m seeing more planning & coordination
among Dems, they don’t need to do anything to win. The slow, distracted populous has lost faith in the current
leadership. Big media can’t undo the images of Katrina on TV or Colin Powell lying is ass off about Iraq.
The Democrats have taken the back seat in goverment
for too long. It is not good enough to just be against
something. You have to propose your own ideas as well.
One thing the US could do is ressurect its moribund
relationship with the UN and repair its relationship with
the Europeans. Everyone has a vested interest in
seeing a peaceful and prosperous Iraq come into existence
at some point in the near future. If we leave someone
must come in to broker a new deal in the Mideast.
The Bush administration foolishly pushed aside the UN and
now has hell to pay for its mistake. The US needs to
work out an agreement to withdraw and gradually usher
in a UN force that could oversee the creation of a
genuinely free and functioning Iraq run by Iraqis.
This will take time and resolve. The US has to renounce
any claim over Iraqi oil ( the real reason
we went there in the first place). Everyone has to
lay their cards on the table. It is going to take the
combined forces of the UN, US,EU, and the Arab nations to
counter
Iranian influence in the area and stop further violence.
The present policy is in ruins. We need clear thinking.
This is where the Democrats could restore people’s faith
in them by coming up with new ideas.
and a