What will and should happen when Captain Queeg Bush refuses to change direction on Iraq?
The Iraq Study Group has handed in its term paper, and Professor Bush is pissed.
I have not read the report, nor its 79 recommendations in any detail. I do have a high level awareness of them though. Jack Murtha has analyzed them:
"On November 7th, 2006 the American public sent a message on Iraq and as the new Democratic majority, we must respond with decisive action. Staying in Iraq is not an option politically, militarily or fiscally. The American people understand this. Today there is near consensus that there is no U.S. military solution and we must disengage our military from Iraq. The ISG recommended that we begin a withdrawal of U.S. troops by early 2008, depending on conditions on the ground. This is no different than the current policy. We must do what is best for America and insist on a responsible plan for redeployment. Iraq is plagued by a growing civil war and only the Iraqis can solve it."
Russ Feingold had another good point:
Unfortunately, the Iraq Study Group report does too little to change the flawed mind-set that led to the misguided war in Iraq. Maybe there are still people in Washington who need a study group to tell them that the policy in Iraq isn’t working, but the American people are way ahead of this report.
While the report has regenerated a few good ideas, it doesn’t adequately put Iraq in the context of a broader national security strategy. We need an Iraq policy that is guided by our top national security priority – defeating the terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11 and its allies. We can’t continue to just look at Iraq in isolation. Unless we set a serious timetable for redeploying our troops from Iraq, we will be unable to effectively address these global threats. In the end, this report is a regrettable example of ‘official Washington’ missing the point."
And on Countdown, the Wisconsin Senator told Olberman, "The fact is, this commission was composed apparently entirely of people who did not have the judgment to oppose this Iraq war in the first place, and who did not have the judgment to realize it was not a wise move in the fight against terrorism."
The other county not heard from is the people of Iraq itself. I haven't seen a lot of polls measuring Iraqi public opinion about the U.S. occupation but in at least one, most Iraquis said the U.S. military was a destabilizng force in that country. American public opinion grows increasingly opposed to the U.S. war/occupation there. A new AP/Ipsos poll of 1000 adults counts 71% against the way G.W. Bush is handling the Iraq issue. 60% want a timetable to get the U.S. out of Iraq by the middle of 2007; 71% want out by 2008 a the latest.Bush gets a whopping 30% approval in the latestZogby. And it was just about a month ago that Bush and the Congressional Republicans were filleted by the voters.
In a number of ways then, the American people have spoken. It could not be clearer that on this issue Murtha and Feingold speak for they whom the President is trying mightily to ignore. And now so does Senator Gordon Smith of Oregon.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- In an emotional speech on the Senate floor Thursday night, Sen Gordon Smith, a moderate Republican from Oregon who has been a supporter of the war in Iraq, said the U.S. military's "tactics have failed" and he "cannot support that anymore."
Smith said he is at, "the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up the same bombs, day after day.
"That is absurd," he said. "It may even be criminal."
Criminal!
Well, Senator Smith, as I said is from Oregon, so he's probably a dope smoking, tie dyed, granola crunching hippie. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Point being, W cannot even count on his party to have his back anymore. He grows more and more lonely as he pushes further into the Big Muddy. If he keeps ignoring reality and public opinion, can anyone stop him? Will anyone try? And if not, what do the people do? Get drunk? Start fights in the subway? Go shopping? Write a poem?
If the war goes on as it is going, and the Commander in Chief won't change direction and if the Congress, now in Opposition hands, does not force a change, will we face some sort of national crisis? To be resolved how?