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| VIDEO: From 9/11 to Iraq |
We let him go at Tora Bora.
We let him go to get Saddam.
Today, Bush doesn’t think he’s worth pursuing. Afghanistan is heading south,
with Pakistan in turmoil. All while Osama continues to send us messages in virtual
freedom. MSNBC runs 9/11 reruns treating the event like the dead British princess,
something to be memorialized by reliving the horror through videotape. It’s
weird, creepy weird.
Meanwhile, Republicans are more interested in combating an ad than they are
in ending the war in Iraq. Seriously, introducing legislation condemning an
ad? Whether you agree or disagree with MoveOn.org, nine soldiers died
just yesterday. What did any Republican do to reverse that trend? What are they
going to do today? Nothing, because they’re too busy cheerleading
for Bush.
The president has failed the people. Congress
has too.
Monday was mainly a disgrace. …
Instead, Petraeus’ testimony was predictable, Crocker’s was almost pathetically
strained, and the legislators’ questions were by and large weak-kneed, even
by House standards.
Deference seemed to be the order of the day.
Neither the president or Congress are capable of representing or delivering to the American people what we (our our Founders) expect or
deserve. One group gives us more six month strategies of unending carnage and economic gushing, while the other is too
scared to stand up and do their jobs by questioning power, except at those daring moments they decide to challenge those who do have the courage to protest the fecklessness. Watching the arrest of the women in pink in the House hearing yesterday I felt like I was watching a Mel Brooks movie. Unfortunately, I was not.
… General Petraeus admitted success in Iraq would be neither quick nor
easy. Mr. Crocker claimed that success is attainable, but made no guarantee.
With that much wiggle room in the prognosis, one would think American leaders
would start looking at serious alternative strategies — like the early,
prudent withdrawal of troops that we favor. The American people deserve more
than what the general and the diplomat offered them yesterday.For that matter, they deserve more than what was offered by Representative
Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. When protesters
interrupted the hearing, Mr. Skelton ordered them removed from the room, which
is understandable. But then he said that they would be prosecuted. That seemed
like an unnecessarily authoritarian response to people who just wanted to
be heard.
Congress has become a parody of itself. The presidency something the Founders wouldn’t recognize anymore.
Every 9/11 I think of one thing. How Congress has abdicated their role in our
democratic republic to leave us at the mercy of mini-men and women working in and outside the White House. How a president
refused to hold the mastermind of 9/11 accountable. I don’t care what Osama means to
Al Qaeda today. But I do care that he got away with it.
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