Failure of Leadership
24 May 2007 11:00 am by Taylor Marsh
Failure of Leadership bumped
Armed with only a bullhorn and a message against the war in Iraq, one protester
kept screaming during Mr. Bush’s press conference. He’s got more spine than
the DC Democrats and rubber stamping Republicans combined, who are currently preparing to kiss
the president’s ring on Iraq. Oh, but it’s all in the name of “supporting the troops,”
right? Sure, if you call being afraid of what everyone will say if you refuse
to continue to escalate the Iraq war. Sure, if you think having no particular
plan is a good way to run a war.
Bush used his bully
pulpit today to show something else. Sheer presidential terror. 9/11…
9/11… 9/11… with a little Osama thrown in. Bush’s audacity knows no bounds. He’s even forgotten that generals don’t set policy. Harry Truman taught us that one. Then Bush said it’s going to get bloodier in Iraq.
No kidding.
More than three months into a U.S.-Iraqi security offensive designed to curtail
sectarian violence in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq, Health Ministry statistics
show that such killings are rising again.From the beginning of May until Tuesday, 321 unidentified corpses, many dumped
and showing signs of torture and execution, have been found across the Iraqi
capital, according to morgue data provided by a Health Ministry official who
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the
information. The data showed that the same number of bodies were found in
all of January, the month before the launch of the Baghdad security plan.
… ..
If Democrats want to stop this war, where’s the
filibuster?
I’ve said it
before…
We are not getting out of Iraq because there’s not enough courage in the Senate
and because not one senator has the guts or the heart to get up and take the
floor, surprise the leaders, and start speaking and not stop talking until C-SPAN
and every cable channel is covering the rant on why the Iraq war is not only
killing our soldiers, but destroying this country, our future and the hope and
possibilities of a generation of moderate Iraqis, Muslims and Arabs, while making
sure our own country remains vulnerable as our defense system is sapped, our
treasury emptied and our country is sold off to China, and every single Guard
and Reserve troop is redeployed over and over again, while Bush and the Republicans
continue to block debate, and Democrats continue to fear what voting on cutting
funding for escalation will look like, while remaining stubbornly obstinate
against banding together to vote in a block just to blow their opponents tiny
little minds; choosing to stand alone on principle, while not taking to the
floor to explain it, but in the end doing everything but what We the People
voted them in to do, not knowing that making the case with passion and fight
and heart will win over a country that long ago left the Iraq war and voted
Republicans out and Democrats in with one eye shut hoping without proof and
holding on to faith that the Democrats would actually do something, which means
get this country out of Iraq and put an end to the countless hundreds of millions
of dollars being buried in the Iraqi sand, start a dialogue with Arab nations,
engage the world in peace, instead of an endless escalation of arms that endangers
us all while our troops put their lives on the line, as U.S. Armed Forces watch
divorce rate soars, and PTSD goes unchecked, unnoticed and ignored; but instead
the Senate decides to have some gigantic tantrum then senators go on cable shows
trying to prove who has the righteous point or who is more moderate and convincing
as to why they’ve chosen to do nothing, when all sides look patently ridiculous,
as if throwing a fit with words like my good friend across the aisle, which
means absolutely nothing to the people of this country who have been watching
this non stop romper room regurgitation of why things can’t get done instead
of illustrating to people how things do get done in terms that make a real person’s
voice actually rise above a whisper by using actual sentences that stir the
emotions and actually get the blood going of the audience, instead of watching
a bunch of old men, passive women, and young disappointments posture day after
day after bloody day until you find yourself wanting to throw something at the
television screen because you just can’t take one more casualty, only to find
out that it’s really dozens AND THEN WMD fears are trotted out again and Fox
“News” begins its drumbeat, mimicked on right-wing radio every day,
because we can’t look weak or like we can’t pull the trigger because we don’t
do diplomacy anymore and besides if we don’t pass some bill the business of
the United States government would shut down and we can’t let that happen because
hell might freeze and the war might stop and…………
I guess the facts just don’t cut it with DC Democrats anymore, especially with
Memorial Day staring them in the face. They’re even scared of a holiday and
what a “no” vote would mean on this bill. Even with evidence that
the surge is not working, Democrats still can’t find their spines.
The Republicans never had one.
But don’t anyone try to convince me that kissing the president’s ring on Iraq
is a first step in getting out of Iraq.
Keith Olbermann has it right.
Those who seek the Democratic nomination need to—for their own political
futures and, with a thousand times more solemnity and importance, for the
individual futures of our troops—denounce this betrayal, vote against
it, and, if need be, unseat Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi if they
continue down this path of guilty, fatal acquiescence to the tragically misguided
will of a monomaniacal president. – Olbermann:
The entire government has failed us on Iraq.
It’s been obvious all through Bush’s presidency that Republicans are spineless rubber stampers; even genuflecting when the president’s plans in Iraq continue to destroy our armed forces.
What will it say if Pelosi and Reid vote against a bill they actually helped
manifest? If that’s Democratic leadership color me disgusted.
Democrats said they did not relish the prospect of leaving Washington for a Memorial Day break — the second recess since the financing fight began — and leaving themselves vulnerable to White House attacks that they were again on vacation while the troops were wanting. That criticism seemed more politically threatening to them than the anger Democrats knew they would draw from the left by bowing to Mr. Bush.
On War Funds, Democrats Saw No Option but to Cede Ground to Bush
