On the Lip of the Vortex: Surging to Disaster

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By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers (about the author) Page 2 of 3 page(s)

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So, if the analysis above is correct, what is to be done?

CheneyBushRove don't seem to give a flying fig whether you or I or the Congress or their own generals or the Iraqis themselves think the Bush Administration is nuts escalating the war and also preparing to bomb Iran. Try to stop me, coppers!

It's the approach of bullies from time immemorial: I don't follow the same rules as you do; get out of my way. It's worked for Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and George Bush for six years, so they're ratcheting up their in-your-face approach for the tail end of their tenure in the White House. Their approval numbers are so low, they may figure they haven't got much to lose.

Cheney, the prime-mover in this foreign adventuring, seems to exist in a world all his own, a dank cave that you'd best stay away from, if you know what's good for you. This week, probably to protect his darkest secrets about his role in the Libby/Plame case and other such White House horrors, he asserted that he doesn't have to follow any of the rules, not even Presidential Executive Orders. He claims he's outside any legal restraints. See the ugly details at Daily Kos ( http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/2/10/181814/730) and at Digby's blog. ( http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007_02_01_digbysblog_archive.html#117107982670783759 )

WOBBLY-KNEED DEMOCRATS

Per usual, the ostensible Opposition Party seems thrown back on its heels and at least temporarily immobilized by this aggressive approach by the Republicans. The Democrats' presidential hopefuls are running around in different directions, personal ambition taking precedence over stopping the war in Iraq and bringing our troops home ASAP.

While the Republicans manufacture and endlessly hype phony-baloney "issues" (Pelosi's plane size, Edwards' offensive bloggers, Obama's alleged "Islamic" roots, etc.), and while the mass-media seem mesmerized by the death of an untalented ex-Playboy bunny and the soap-opera of a jilted astronaut in diapers, there are hundreds real people -- American troops and Iraqi civilians -- being slaughtered and maimed in Iraq each day.

The Democrats seem content to take their time dealing with the issue of extracting our troops and in condemning Bush's reckless, dangerous escalation of sending more young American soldiers into Iraq. Shame on the Dems! And their timidity could even prove to be disastrous politically, as they will have the blood of "surged" American troops on their hands for the 2008 campaign, making Iraq no longer just Bush's war.

The American public is not, and history will not be, especially interested in the actual wording of a war resolution, one that is non-binding in any case. Three weeks of verbal dilly-dallying. The voters just want American forces to leave, as quickly as is humanly possible. And they don't want another war to start in Iran. If truth be known, they just want Bush and Cheney to leave the premises.

* If it takes the House cutting off funds for anything other than to facilitate the "redeployment" of U.S. forces out of Iraq, then let's get to it.

* If it takes the introduction of a bill forbidding Bush to attack Iran without Congressional approval -- and explicitly noting that if he bombs anyway, that act automatically will trigger impeachment -- then let's get to it.

(And, in case you haven't noticed, the bomb-Iran war-wheels are being greased and the same templates of lies and deceptions are being hauled out yet again, just like they were prior to "shock&awe" in Iraq. The Administration is trying to provoke a bellicose act by Iran -- it is now moving a third naval group into the Persian Gulf area -- since there is no imminent threat Iran poses to the United States to justify a massive bombing attack. Anonymous intelligence figures asserting that Iran is supplying some arms to Shia militias in Iraq hardly qualifies as a causus belli (and hasn't been proven to be true, in any case), since Saudia Arabia is allegedly doing much the same thing for the Sunnis in Iraq.)

* If it takes impeachment hearings to remove the shadow president, Mr. Cheney, and the acting president, Mr. Bush, then let's get to it.

What these guys are doing to America's standing in the world, to our country's national security, to the Constitution, amounts to felony reckless-endangerment. They swore to uphold and defend the nation and its Constitution and its citizens and instead they have put us all in harm's way, making us more likely than not to undergo catastrophic consequences because of their foolish, ignorant misunderstanding of the world.

They must go. Honorable men would resign. These guys are in no way honorable.

They're on the lip of the vortex and they don't seem to care if they suction everyone else with them as they take the downward swirl. It's long past time to ratchet up the dissent. Let's get to it. #

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Bernard Weiner, Ph.D. in government & international relations, has taught at universities in California and Washington, worked for two decades as a writer-editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, and currently serves as co-editor of The Crisis Papers (more...)

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