Commentary On year Four Of The War

It seems just like yesterday the George W Bush landed on an aircraft carrier in what can easily go down as the shortest flight in history. The camera men had to position their shots just right so that they don’t get the California skyline in the broadcast. Then of course is the infamous “mission accomplished,” speech that should be viewed as the lowest point of any western nations history. So here we are 4 years later, 600,000+ dead Iraqi’s and 3217 dead Americans, not counting the 700+ private contractors, along with some 40,000 wounded troops and there is no end in sight. In fact the situation is Iraq is quickly slipping deeper in a civil war that seems to be exasperated by or presents. And in Washington, the White house seems content in using the same dialogue that came from their pre-war diatribe despite the fact that the rest of the country has moved far behind their phony rhetoric.

Even the Democratic led congress has reached the point that there is an understanding that a complete pullout is needed. While there is a serious disagreement on how go about the process, the dialogue is now on the table which is extremely. But even here the ideas of gradual withdraw at this late stage of the game seems to more of the same pandering that we’ve seen since the pre November elections. The best idea that the rank and file Democrats have been able to come up with is a pullout by March or September of 2008, meaning that if this bill were to pass, we a would have to accept another year of blood shed in a war from, our stand point, which has been lost and seems to spin further out of control.  The sad irony here is that this idea is still better than what is coming out of the White House which is nothing more than an open ended and potentially endless war.

Speaking of the White House, despite the outcome of last November elections, they still are under the illusion that they have the support of the American people which couldn’t be further from the truth. Despite the fluctuation in poll numbers, Bush’s approval rating remains around 36% while Cheney’s is stuck at 29% and Rice’s continues to free fall. Many Americans have long since turned their attention to domestic issues, meaningful jobs, universal health care and so on. But according to Tony Snow and others in DC, there is no money in the budget for the reestablishment of our social programs along with the creation of new services. Instead, we are witnessing the cannibalization of that very structure in the name of a war that clearly no one wants and yet it is being forced upon all us.

Until next time.