I work in a hospital and am still shaken by my encounter with one patient a couple of days ago. I met a man whose daughter just came back from Iraq. But when she came back, she was no longer the loving daughter who would care for him in his old age or the devoted mother of his grandchildren. She came back in a coffin. He had had a falling out with her husband and could now no longer visit his grandchildren either. He’s a tough man, a former construction worker, friendly with a sharp sense of humor. But when he spoke of the loss of his daughter and two grandsons, he was bent over in grief and wept openly. My heart went out to him, but I didn’t know what to say. For the first time, the war briefly touched my life and left a pain that was suffocating. It was all I could do to keep my own composure. And his is just one story.
We recently reached a grim milestone in the Bush-McCain War. Over 4000 Americans dead. Roughly85000 Iraqi citizens have died. The enormity is difficult to comprehend - but try. Imagine every person in Cambridge being killed. Or the death of 1/3 of the people in Pittsburgh. Or maybe you can picture every single family in the state of Wyoming being torn apart by the heartbreaking loss of a mother or father, a son or daughter, a brother or sister. Try to grasp the scope of this tragedy and the grief will overwhelm you. And all this for what?
But the nightmare is almost over. Soon we’ll have a Democrat in the White House who will bring our troops home. It’s been a tough 7 years, but it couldn’t get any worse...right?
If you think BushCo is capable of leaving office without one final "Fuck you!" to the American people, I think you misunderestimate them.
Let’s take a brief look back at how this fiasco started. (All credit to Jon & Stephen for the video.)
Back to today. Many have commented on the "gaffe" John McCain made in his comment linking Iran to al Qaeda.
Most people are laughing this off and calling John McCain senile. That’s definitely possible. After all, we are talking about this guy:
But I think there's more to that statement. He has made the claim linking Iran to al Qaeda multiple times. And he wasn’t the first one. Rumsfeld was pushing this story back in 2003.
Consider that Admiral William Fallon, an outspoken opponent of war with Iran, is stepping down from his post today over differences with Bush’s "policy objectives" in Iran.
At the same time, Bush has been stepping up his rhetoric on Iran. Last Monday, Cheney also accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons enrichment during his Middle East tour. An LA Times article notes that this echoes a recent false claim by Bush, and also questions the motivation for Cheney’s tour.
President Bush said last week that Iran's leaders had "declared" that they were seeking nuclear weapons. Iran has always denied it was seeking nuclear weapons, and the White House later retracted the statement somewhat, calling his remarks "shorthand."
In any case, Cheney's recent trip around the Middle East had a curious arc. He all but encircled the country that has become the greatest U.S. rival in the region.
At almost every stop on his trip, Cheney brought up the subject of Iran and its role in upending U.S. plans for the region.
The time to act is now. Congress already passed the Kyl-Lieberman act designating the Iranian national guard as a terrorist organization. That along with the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the 9/11 Force Authorization, and the Iraq Force Authorization gives Bush all the power he needs to start another war. And it sounds like that’s what he’s planning.
I encourage you to revisit this diary on the subject by General Wesley Clark last October.
I’m following the election as closely as the rest of you, but maybe we could give this issue some attention too? After all, do you think we can really achieve universal healthcare and make progress on all those other nifty programs our candidates are planning if we have to deal with a war in Iraq and Iran? And if not for that, do it for the thousands of innocent lives we can save.
Get this story out. Contact your news organizations and congresscritters. And please visit stopIranWar.com to learn more about how you can help.