Bush hasn't listened to the wisdom of senators and congressmen calling for a withdrawal timeline, he hasn't listened to the polls (most of which top 60%), and he isn't listening to his battle-weary troops, and isn't listening to his troops' generals or families, and clearly hasn't been listening to his conscience. What will it take?
I'm thinking that since noise hasn't worked, maybe a little silence would convince him, an American parallel to the overturned bowls in Myanmar.
We give Bush a deadline... let's say February 6 (the beginning of Lent) to agree to a withdrawal time-line. If it's not in place by that date, there's a week-long Lenten Silence: we all pledge to stay home with our families and neighbors and live in quiet austerity for a week: no unnecessary purchases, no travel, no work. Just quality time with families, friends and neighbors, conversation, quiet meditation, religious and moral introspection, prayer, whatever serves. A time-out. If enough people stay home, maybe, just maybe, the little dip in that week's GNP would get his attention.
I only suggest Lent because a good many people already use that time of the year for religious austerity and introspection. I'm not religious, myself. (In fact, I'm an atheist.) But I think there's a majority in this country that's looking for some way to put the brakes on an administration that seems totally out of touch and out of control, and I'm willing to lay aside my skepticism and join hands with people of any and every religious stripe (from Anabaptists to Zoroastrians) if that's what it will take to help this democracy recover its moral footing. But if folks think "Lenten Silence" is too loaded a name, we could just call it a Week of Austerity or something. And it wouldn't even have to be February 6, if people think it could be organized more quickly (which perhaps it should be, with the example of Myanmar fresh in everyone's mind).
(But if it's February 6, we could have one hell of a national Mardi Gras the day before!)
How about it for a national week of introspective austerity?