Month: August 2005

Proof (as if any were needed) that you have to be mentally challenged to support President Bush and his war:

In one heated moment, members of the pro-Bush crowd turned on what they mistakenly thought were a group of anti-war protesters, cursing them, threatening them and tearing down their signs. A police officer rushed the group to safety.

If you’re guessing that the two groups were the Paste-Eaters and Mouth-Breathers, you are close. One group was Move America Forward; the other called itself Protest Warriors.

Keith Olbermann uncovered something interesting about Move America Forward last week:

[…]

Time Magazine:

This has been a tough summer for the Bush Administration. While the President tries to relax on his five week Texas vacation, he’s had to contend with deteriorating military and political conditions in Iraq, a Woodstock-like peace protest at the edge of his Crawford compound led by Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan, declining public opinion polls (that are echoed by “even worse” internal polling, says one Bush adviser), high oil prices and a recognition that things are not likely to turn around anytime soon. A senior Bush official attributes the president’s collapsing poll numbers to “high gas prices and a lot of anxiety about the war” and acknowledges “that’s not likely to change anytime soon.” A cruel summer is likely to fade into an autumn of discontent as congressmen like [Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), who has renounced his support for Bush’s war] come back to Washington having heard complaints from constituents.

“The harsh reality is that if left to run its own course, a civil war in Iraq would result in a hard-line, radical Islamic mini-state in southern Iraq, with extremely close ties with Iran; a Kurdish state in the North engaged in its own internal civil war between rival factions; and Baghdad reduced to a modern-day Beirut, divided into fortified Shi’a and Sunni communities at war with one another. It would all be “governed” by a weak central authority lacking the means to effect any meaningful change.

“Worst of all, from the American perspective, is that the Sunni population of Iraq, disenfranchised and impoverished, would be compelled to embrace radical Islam, providing a perfect recruiting and training ground for the forces of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

“This is the future of Iraq should the Bush administration continue to “stay the course,” as the President recently promised to do. There is no elegant solution to offer up as an alternative. The fact is, the number-one threat faced by the United States from Iraq today is the creation of a lawless, non-state entity among the Iraqi Sunni that serves to feed a regional and global anti-American Jihad.”

— Scott Ritter, whose dire predictions in 2003 for the outcome of the U.S. invasion of Iraq have proven to be preternaturally correct

Recently, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) summed up President Bush’s lack of strategy for success in Iraq by saying that “staying the course is not a policy.” Now, in an editorial for the Washington Post, retired Gen. Wesley Clark argues against pulling out of Iraq while there is still a chance for success – and offers a brief outline of steps the Bushes could (but won’t) take to turn the crisis there around.

In particular, Gen. Clark excoriates the Bush team’s hamfisted excuse for diplomacy in the Middle East and strongly urges them to bring the stakeholders to the table:

Adding a diplomatic track to the strategy is a must. The US should form a standing conference of Iraq’s neighbors, complete with committees dealing with all the regional economic and political issues, including trade, travel, cross-border infrastructure projects, and, of course, cutting off the infiltration of jihadists. Iraq’s neighbors should be asked to assist. This will also provide a better opportunity for meaningful back-door discussions of Iran’s nuclear program, Syria’s interests in Lebanon, and Turkish interaction with the Kurds in Iraq. The US should tone down its raw rhetoric for US-style democracy as an answer to all problems and instead listen more carefully to the many voices within the region. A public US declaration forswearing permanent bases in Iraq would also be helpful in engaging both regional and Iraqi support at this point.

Wes is blogging at TPM Cafe next week.

President Bush has been too busy reading and raising money on his vacation to meet with “Peace Mom” Cindy Sheehan, so now the Iraq war protester says she will try to influence members of Congress, starting with the most powerful – and most odious – man in the House, Majority Leader Tom Delay.

“I think our first stop might be Tom DeLay’s office,” [Sheehan] said, surrounded by supporters. “I just wanted to let him know so he’ll be in his office when we get there…”

A spokeswoman for DeLay said his schedule was already set and did not plan to change it to meet with Sheehan.

The DeLay’s spokeswoman then earned her salary by using the Karl Rove-approved spin Republicans are instructed to use when discussing Cindy Sheehan:

“Mr. DeLay disagrees with those who believe we should give the terrorists the timeline they want and simply cut and run from the war in Iraq,” said DeLay spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty.