IRAQ: Bush\’s \”Escalation,\” and Ford\’s Shiv
| 2006 Memories: Team Escalate in Conference |
In Edwards\’ announcement today he evidently used the \”e\” word, according
to Ezra who was at the festivities. As regular readers are aware, I\’ve been
using the word \”escalation\” for weeks and weeks.
Edwards explicitly condemned the \”surge\” plan for Iraq. But he
didn\’t call it the surge. \”It is a mistake,\” he said, \”for
America to escalate the war in Iraq.\” That\’s the term the blogs have
adopted as well, and its prominent placement, used before he mentioned the
word \”surge,\” struck me as a possible dog whistle to the left.
Not only is John Edwards calling Bush\’s idea of a \”surge\” what
it is, but Barack Obama is too. Welcome, gentlemen, we\’re glad to have you on
board.
But Barack Obama
came out against the Iraq war when it was being debated in the Senate. Recently,
Senator Obama invoked the \”e\” word, too.
As I said more than a month ago, while some have proposed escalating this
war by adding thousands of more troops, there is little reason to believe
that this will achieve these results either. It\’s not clear that these troop
levels are sustainable for a significant period of time, and according to
our commanders on the ground, adding American forces will only relieve the
Iraqis from doing more on their own. Moreover, without a coherent strategy
or better cooperation from the Iraqis, we would only be putting more of our
soldiers in the crossfire of a civil war.There is no military solution to this war. Our troops can help suppress the
violence, but they cannot solve its root causes. And all the troops in the
world won\’t be able to force Shia, Sunni, and Kurd to sit down at a table,
resolve their differences, and forge a lasting peace. In fact, adding more
troops will only push this political settlement further and further into the
future, as it tells the Iraqis that no matter how much of a mess they make,
the American military will always be there to clean it up.That is why I believe we must begin a phased redeployment of American troops
to signal to the government and people of Iraq, and others who have a stake
in stabilizing the country – that ours is not an open-ended commitment. They
must step up. The status quo cannot hold. …
No kidding.
But the news today has been all about the
shiv the late Gerald R. Ford just slipped into Mr. Bush. It just adds injury
to the neocons, who are just now finding out that Ford thought them all quite
crazy. Which when juxtaposed alongside the insult he gave the rest of us when he pardoned Nixon it paints quite a presidential picture, now doesn\’t it? Then
there\’s Bob Woodward. Since becoming a ranking member of the corporate hack pack, Woodward has turned
into quite a toe sucker, hasn\’t he?
But when looking to \’08 we really need to find someone of true courage. Someone
who can speak clearly and lead with a strong progressive hand, without equivocating
or pandering. Well, at least speak clearly.
The rest of us will need to push back against the
idiots. No one else will do it.
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