In today's editorial section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the editorial board wrote what can only be described a scathing look into the current situation in Iraq.
Take a few minutes to read the editorial. It'll give you hope that all of us here in "fly-over" country really do get it.
Keep in mind: the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is not the New York Times. It is a moderate newspaper that reflects the moderate views of the St. Louis area. So an editorial like this - coming from a paper like this - shows how far the Bush presidency has truly fallen and where Middle-America's heart and mind really stand.
Post-Dispatch: Today in Iraq
While the entire editorial is worth reading, it is the end that drives the point home.
Also on Thursday, a suicide bomber infiltrated the cafeteria of the Parliament building inside Baghdad's Green Zone. The blast killed one and injured 22, with some members of Parliament among the wounded. That raised the obvious question: If this is the most secure building in the most secure area in the city we have surged our troops to protect, isn't it time to end the delusion that any amount of force, any amount of money, any amount of U.S. and Iraqi sacrifice can turn this situation around?
When the president doesn't know what his defense secretary is doing;
When a "war czar" is proposed as a solution for dilettantes and poseurs who aren't doing their jobs;
When Iraqi leaders can't stop stockpiling weapons and arguing about events that occurred in the seventh century;
When firefighters and construction workers and cops in National Guard outfits are yanked from their families and jobs and sent on a second tour;
When the beleaguered U.S. Army must require its soldiers to spend 15 months in combat to earn 12 months with their families;
When the "ready brigade" of the 82nd Airborne Division, the nation's crisis force, is training to deploy again to Iraq, and the Army's vice chief of staff admits it isn't ready to respond anywhere else in the world;
And when the rest of the country is too wrapped up in "American Idol" and the bigoted ignorance of an aging shock jock to pay attention to the devastation wrought in its name;
It's time to call in leaders of Iraq and their Middle Eastern neighbors, set a date certain and tell them that after that, they're on their own.
Enough is enough.
We often accuse politicians in Washington of being out of touch with reality. And to a degree, that's true. But this editorial, written in perhaps the heart of the heartland, shows that it's really only one party in Washington that is out of touch with reality.
Democrats: stop worrying about what the media tells you Middle America believes. Do what is right! We will be behind you!