The lead story in this morning's L.A. Times says that US Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, a Bush administration appointee, believes that Iraq is a Pandora's Box ready to explode. Rumsfeld and other administration ideologues say it's all Iran's fault. So do we invade Iran next?
http://www.latimes.com/...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
And the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Pace, says that it's getting better all the time. Tell that to the people of Iraq who have been subjected to years of unending violence.
I'll keep it short to post quickly, but what can progressives do? First off, we have an obligation to tell friends and co-workers that the continued blind pursuit of this war will result in the deaths of more American soldiers and many more Iraqis for no other reason than the Bush administration's inflexible ideology. Whether with the NSA or Katrina or Iraq - this administration refuses to entertain any information that is in conflict with its preconceptions. In the first instance, it undermines our basic civil liberties. In the second, it cost hundreds of lives. In the third, it has already cost tens of thousands of lives and, undoubtedly will take more.
What else? I believe that officers in the United States armed forces take an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Their loyalty to their Commander in Chief is secondary to this primary obligation. We need to deluge the Pentagon demanding that the Joint Chiefs assess the military situation in Iraq dispassionately, not politically. The false pretenses which led to the invasion of Iraq are grounds enough for international condemnation. Still, the United States military leadership can reasonably claim they were carrying out legitimate orders. But now, there is a mountain of evidence staring Pace and his colleagues in the face. For them to deny it is for them to abrogate their oath to the Constitution.