War in Iraq

Hat tip to Ed Cone on Mission Accomplished Day. Nice find, Ed.

While folks here disagree on many issues, there is one about which we have near unanimity: the tenure of Senator Elizabeth Dole has been an unqualified disaster. And what is Liddy doing these days to improve her performance? She is proposing that we increase our military spending by 20%! What could be better than that! As Rob Schofield at NC Policy Watch suggests, Dole's proposal would result in the US spending $15 a year for every human being on the entire planet.

Bill Moyers does it better than anybody I've heard. Thanks for this. It's a reminder of what we have going for us. And these are kinds of people we want to replace with Blackwater?

The N&O finally gets its editorial head on straight when it comes to Bush's War. It's about damn time.

If Americans feel shell-shocked from the Iraq debate this week, they are to be excused. This anniversary week of 9/11 by coincidence was supposed to bring a reckoning of the war effort, and as the foggy reporting to Congress by Gen. David Petraeus was winding down, the nation was told that President Bush would make a prime time report of his own on Thursday night. After a flood of words and upbeat assessments, his speech no better informed Americans about what they might with any confidence expect as this nation's costly Iraq venture drags on.

My open feud with the News and Observer's editorial pages goes back a couple of years when the paper gave George Bush the benefit of the doubt regarding the his war in Iraq. The N&O wasn't exactly a cheerleader, and in his personal columns, Steve Ford often wondered about the long-term consequences of military action. But neither was the paper a strong and vocal critic of Bush's disastrous foreign policy.

Today's lead editorial is more of the same. The paper calls George Bush out on his stunning hypocrisy, but still holds on to the delusion of hope that something called "success" can emerge from the ashes of Iraq.

I've generally stopped reading the editorial pages of the News and Observer because of the weak-kneed positions taken by Steve Ford & Co. Looks like I'll have to stop with the Charlotte Observer, too. Today, Ed Williams, the editorial page editor in Charlotte, wrote a column that would do Steve Ford proud.

After describing the litany of horrors committed by Saddam Hussein, Williams writes:

Clinton said, "In the next century, the community of nations may see more and more of the kind of threat Iraq poses now -- a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists. If we fail to respond today, Saddam, and all those who would follow in his footsteps, will be emboldened tomorrow by the knowledge that they can act with impunity."

History will judge America for what we've done there. History would have judged us for doing nothing, too.

I don't often find myself heartbroken, enraged and inspired by a simple slide show. But this one is just too hard for my brain to grasp.

Click on the album cover.

So. The Preznit will be on the boob tube tonight telling more lies to the world. Why he's even bothering is beyond me. George Bush doesn't care what Congress has to say about his insane war in Iraq. He doesn't care what Walter Jones has to say. Or Howard Coble. Or any Democratic representative. Or the American people. The troop surge has already begun.

What an ass.