Bush Calls for Resolve was the headline in today's SF Chronicle. "As President Bush asked Americans for another chance in Iraq Wednesday night, he was speaking to a nation that has largely given up on his wartime judgment, has lost faith in his ability to succeed and is likely to have grave reservations about his assertion that the quickest way to end the conflict is to escalate it." Marc Sandalow, S.F. Chronicle Washington Bureau Chief.
Resolve? You want resolve? You can't handle resolve, Mr. Bush. How about asking for sacrifice? How about if some of your most rabid right-wing supporters sent their sons and daughters to Iraq. How about if we started paying for the war by a tax on obscene wealth and profits? Not only should we not make your tax-cuts for the wealthy permanent, we should roll them back and even surcharge them. Let's pay for this boondogle of yours by charging oil companies who have made record profits a tax on those profits. Those executives who scored bonuses of over $100 million dollars for either success or failure, they should pay taxes on their windfalls. Companies such as Halliburton who have made billions off of the Iraq war should also pony up some of those ill-gained profits.
This war is wrong on so many levels that it boggles the mind. Congress says it can't do anything. Bullshit. Congress can begin by repealing its authorization to the President for war. It can remind him that the Constitution makes Congress responsible for declaring war, not the President. It can censure him. Congress can demand a pay-as-you-go war. What Congress cannot do is nothing. Desperate people begin making desperate choices. Bush and his cohorts are dangerous. In his speech, he threatened Iran and Syria with military action.
Today we raided an Iranian consulate in Iraq. That is an illegal act of aggression against a sovereign state. We didn't like it when the Iranians seized our embassy in Tehran and held our diplomats hostage. If it was wrong then, it's wrong now.
These are very dangerous times, and we have an idiot with his finger on the nuclear trigger.
shalom dancing...evil walks the world and the rest of the fold are wearing blinders...great post...great blog...glad to see you back writing...stay safe my friend and a sweet shabbat shalom
Posted by: marallyn | January 12, 2007 at 05:47 AM
This appeared on DesignerBlog:
Last night I watched Bozo pitch his supposedly new approach to the chaos, suffering, social, political and human disaster he's visited on the people of Iraq, on American soldiers and their families, and the entire Middle East. His manner was startlingly and infuriatingly different. Gone was the arrogant, know-it-all swagger, the faux-jock posturing, the good ol' boy manner. The "new" Bozo spoke simply and in a measured, explanatory tone to the American people. He admitted to having made a mistake. He proposed a new policy. He was calm and read whole, grammatically correct sentences carefully written out for him in advance. He tried with all his might not to look or sound like the real George W. Bush.
Big effing deal. His mistake turns out to be that he hadn't been a bigger swaggering faux-jock know-it-all earlier by making an even bigger war with a larger American presence. The "new policy" is more of the failed old policy, just delivered by a supposedly kinder, gentler, compassionately conservative good ol’ boy. Against all reason, against all the advice he's been given, against the clear wishes of the American people as expressed in the late fall elections, the pig-headed screw up is sending more troops to Iraq. There will be more of an occupation imposed on the country, there will be more deaths, more provocation to the resistance that wasn't part of Al Qaeda until we meddled in their weapons-free country.
As the old expression has it, same old fecal matter in a different but maddeningly familiar package. It stunk the day he went into Iraq and it stinks now.
Posted by: Will | January 12, 2007 at 06:56 PM
We all make sacrifice & it appears that the poor & fit are called upon, not to defend the country but to expand one man's ego or plan to 'rule the world,' & loose his soul in doing so. Our Aussie. PM is hell bent in following as our 20 million souls would have no chance in a stand up fight with USA. What is this I hear that US of A has already taken over West Africa with it's imperialism, with schemes & lies, now they wish to take the middle east by force.
Posted by: Amy E. Green | January 14, 2007 at 01:09 PM