The Insanity of the Politics of this War

Baghdad - A car bomb killed at least 13 people Wednesday in a Shiite part of Baghdad, and the U.S. command announced the deaths of eight more American soldiers - some victims of a weapon the American command believes comes from Iran.

Above is a headline from the associated press and in bold is American Propaganda at work. Doesn't that sound like we are builiding momentum to bomb Iran? Any link to Iraq is the key.

Regardless, at least 44 Iraqis were killed or found dead nationwide Wednesday, according to police reports. The toll marked an uptick in the daily carnage as President Bush prepares for a showdown in Congress over the future of the U.S. mission.

Now, Congress is in a showdown with Bush with the Iraq policy. There are reports suddenly, oh aghast am I the democrats want to compromise with the Republicans. With a mixed picture emerging about progress in Iraq, Senate Democratic leaders are showing a new openness to compromise as they try to attract Republican support for forcing at least modest troop withdrawals in the coming months.

Where is the anti war candidate this time around? The election is set to heat up and most remain quiet outside of Dennis Kucinich. Though, it seems Edwards is not starting to show some muscle. "It's time for the Congress to stand its ground," he said on a conference call with reporters. "If there's no timetable, there should be no funding."

Edwards is calling for the immediate withdrawal of 40,000 to 50,000 US troops and the redeployment of the rest over about nine months. This needs to happen quickly. What is Congress thinking? How can they be constantly fooled by this administration over and over again? How can they be so chicken shit as to compromise? It is time for the surge to end, it is time for the war to end, it is time to bring the troops home, to restore sanity to that region and our nation.

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama better take a stand about immediate withdrawal or bifurcated timetable or they will lose our support here and I can only assure them they will lose the blogoshpere quickly. But, they must take a stand, not just vote against a terrible measure. It is time to show leadership.

John Kerry wrote a piece to the Huffington Post yesterday that is note worthy and says with enraged indignation: I chaired a hearing on the GAO Report yesterday, the report that stated that Iraqi civilians overall aren't any safer, that the political benchmarks aren't being met in Iraq, that, in short, none of the rationales for the escalation in Iraq have come to pass. It unfolds with maddening, enraging regularity: the Administration claims goals for their policy, they gradually back off of those goals and substitute smaller, less easily measured goals, and then muddy the waters hopelessly on whether even those modest new goals have been met. Time and again we've been through this.

"This war must end."