As the current effort to smear an honest and decent women unfolds, while she and her supporters keep vigil outside George W. Bush's Dirt & Brush farm, a word of advice to certain conservative banshees who have been leading the charge.
More Beyond the Fold
Instead of another visicious attempt to destroy, both personally and politically, a critic of the Bush Administration and the destructive policies they have enacted both at home and abroad, perhaps they should take stock of the mess in their own "homes".
A stream of bad news out of Iraq, echoed at home by polls that show growing impatience with the war and rising disapproval of
President Bush's Iraq policies, is stirring political concern in Republican circles...
Some said that the perception that the war was faltering...could pose problems for Republicans in the Congressional elections next year.
Republicans said a convergence of events - including the protests inspired by the mother of a slain American soldier outside Mr. Bush's ranch in Texas, the missed deadline to draft an Iraqi Constitution and the spike in casualties among reservists - was creating what they said could be a significant and lasting shift in public attitude against the war.
No matter what anyone says or what evidence they are shown, the most conservative among us will continue to repeat the mindless mantra of Bush - "Stay the Course," in light of a nation increasingly opposed to the war and the validation of concerns raised before the invasion and throughout the war's course.
"There is just no enthusiasm for this war...Nobody is happy about it. It certainly is not going to help Republican candidates, I can tell you that much."
- Rep. John J. Duncan Jr, (R-TN)
"I have been to a lot of funerals." - Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest, (R-MD)
But people who felt this war was wrong and would produce grave consequences for both the United States and Iraq, have been proven correct. Whether it has been the depravity of Abu Ghraib or the lack of a post-invasion reconstruction plan or the 63 soldiers killed sofar in August, the people who have questioned this war and those who are now willing to question the war's conduct have had nothing other than the best interests of America and our people in mind.
"If Iraq is in the rearview mirror in the '06 election, the Republicans will do fine. But if it's still in the windshield, there are problems."
- Grover Norquist, (ultra-conservative lawn gnome)
Those who insist that it is somehow patriotic to show continued support for a failed plan and an improbable mission, fail to realize that poor planning and unrealistic goals (as admitted by some Administration officials) has more to do with soothing a brush rancher's ego than the best interests of the United States, and most importantly, our voluteer armed forces, who are paying the price for the miscalculations, misperceptions and misadventure of the Bush Administration.
"Any effort to explain Iraq as 'We are on track and making progress' is nonsense..."
- Newt Gingrinch
To not hold those responsible for making the mistakes, which have visited personal tragedy upon the homes of grieving Americans & Iraqi's, accountable for their gross & flagrant failure of leadership, is a disservice to the men and women who fought and died with honor, who sacrificed their lives to the call of duty and in the name of a grateful nation; both held captive by Bush's misbegotten war.
Perhaps that's why supporters of George W. Bush fire off guns over the heads of a peaceful protest or careen dangerously off the road to rundown crosses with the names of the fallen written on them. Perhaps they simply cannot comprehend or come face-to-face with the loss of life and human tragedy needlessly brought about by "stay the course."
And while it may be a volunteer force, as some of our friends on the right have pointed out, to continue on our present path shows little more than callous disrespect toward those who serve.
We can honor them by bringing them home, so that another mother or father is not wrecked with grief or a child left without a parent, so that they may continue to serve the United States honorably and be finished with George W. Bush's War.
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