I think runaway pragmatism has overwhelmed the politicos’ urge to oversimplify – except for Bush, of course. We all realize that now that we’ve destroyed a country and plunged it into chaos, we can hardly jump on transport planes and leave it all behind us. We owe the world at least the decency of trying to clean up the mess we’ve made there, and most Americans understand that. Unfortunately, either no one in the Bush Administration is smart enough to design any kind of plan to restore order; the administration lacks the strength, courage, and will to force the Iraqis to restore order themselves; or the administration is simply tired of the whole mess and is just waiting for January 2009 to come and go so it’s not their problem any more. Or it could be varying portions of all three. My sense here in the American heartland is that we are sick of the war, but this president has proven himself so petulant, intransigent, and incompetent that any effort to guide or push him in the right direction would be wasted.
I think she jumped the shark when she went from anti-Iraq protester (and Bush hater) to straight Bush hater. Hurricane Katrina wasn’t really about Iraq. Casey didn’t die in Hurricane Katrina. But Cindy pulled up stakes and went to where the cameras were. That’s not to say that the attention she drew to the Katrina boondoggle was a bad thing, just that her “mission statement” was to get Bush to tell her what her son died for.
I think if she would have kept her focus on Iraq instead of trying to cover all the reasons to hate Bush, her message wouldn’t have become so watered down. Bush haters are a dime a dozen, reasons to hate Bush are a dime a dozen, she should have just stuck to the anti-war movement.
So to me, she eventually just came across as a Bush hater who used the death of her son as an excuse to gain a higher soapbox to bash Bush from. I realize that to many people hating Bush and hating the war are the same, and Bush fueled her hatred of him by refusing to meet with her again, but I still think her message would have been more relevent if she would have concentrated her efforts strictly on Iraq/hating Bush with regards to Iraq.
I’ll be surprised if this is the last we see of her.
Tangent: can the Iraqi’s be realistically forced to do that?
The Democrats agreed to continue funding the war after Bush agreed to provide funding for some of the Democrats’ pet projects. The cinic in me wonders if this wasn’t their goal all along.
Very well said. Sure, 70% of the population may be against the war but what has that gotten us, exactly? Nothing.
Christ, I hope not.
From Aljazera:
“Besides abandoning their plan for a troop withdrawal timeline, Democrats gave up
on attempts to insert provisions to require the Pentagon to adhere to troop training,
readiness and rest requirements.”
From Congressional Quarterly:
“proceeds from the sale of holiday ornaments by the Senate Gift Shop
to be transferred to the Senate’s Employee Child Care Center.”