Josh Marshall warns us about what appears to be the President’s march toward war against Iran:
I’ve said this before. But perhaps it seems like hyperbole. So I’ll say it again. The president’s interests are now radically disjoined from the country’s. We can handle a setback like Iraq. It really is a big disaster. But America will certainly surive it. President Bush — in the sense of his legacy and historical record — won’t. It’s all Iraq for him. And Iraq is all disaster. So, from his perspective (that is to say, through the prism of his interests rather than the country’s — which he probably can’t separate) reckless gambits aimed at breaking out of this ever-tightening box make sense.
Think of it like this. He’s a death row prisoner concocting athousand-to-one plan to break out of prison. For him, those are goododds. The rest of us are doing three months for disorderly conduct. Andhe’s trying to rope us into his harebrained scheme. Like I said, hisinterests are very different from ours.
Speak up. We’re on the edge of the abyss.
In November, the American people made it very clear to this administration that the war in Iraq should end sooner rather than later. In January, the President thumbed his nose by doing the exact opposite - escalating the war. Now, as the pieces come into place, it looks as though this President may be angling to escalate the war beyond the borders of Iraq and into Iran.
Setting aside the moral implications of this action (which are significant, as this would be an immoral escalation of an immoral war), what the President is doing is gambling with the future of the world for the next half century. The consequences of such a war would likely be catastrophic for all of us: The collapse of the oil supply from the middle east; the collapse of the global economy; a generation of chaos throughout the middle east and beyond; the end of the way of life the developed world has come to know alongside immeasurable suffering in the developing world.
I will echo Josh Marshall’s warning. If you care about the future of your children and grandchildren, oppose this President before it is too late.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow: “Does this send a signal that the United States is divided on the key element of success in Iraq?”
No, Tony, the country is united against your boss’ plan to escalate the war. See, he is a uniter, not a divider!
Steve Clemons is reading the tea leaves and speculating that the President’s escalation of the war in Iraq may be far, far larger than he is letting on:
“Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran.
The President may have started a new secret, informal war against Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad discussion with the country.”
It appears that the Democrats in the Senate may be catching on to this, however. In Condi Rice’s testimony before the Senate today, Republican Chuck Hagel pulled forward an historical analogy:
“Some of us remember 1970, Madame Secretary, and that was Cambodia, and when our government lied to the American people and said we didn’t cross the border going into Cambodia. In fact we did. I happen to know something about that, as do some on this committee.
So, Madame Secretary, when you set in motion the kind of policy that the president is talking about here, it’s very, very dangerous. Matter of fact, I have to say, Madame Secretary, that I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it’s carried out. I will resist it.”
Furthermore, it appears that Senator Biden may be setting the stage for the “I” word to enter the conversation should Mr. Bush expand the war beyond Iraq into Syria and Iran:
“Madame Secretary, I just want to make it clear, speaking for myself, that if the president concluded he had to invade Iran or Iraq in pursuit of these — or Syria — in pursuit of these networks, I believe the present authorization granted the president to use force in Iraq does not cover that, and he does need congressional authority to do that. I just want to set that marker.”
Of course, if the administration can provoke the Iranians into attacking US, say, by breaking into their consulate and arresting their diplomats, then I suppose that whole congressional authorization point would be moot.
The time is now to get on our knees and pray that cooler heads would prevail in order to avert even more unnecessary wars and more suffering. History has already seen one too many Neros…
Bush to the American people: Bite Me:
US President George W Bush has ordered more than 20,000 additional troops to Iraq, as part of a new strategy for tackling the conflict there.
As expected, a staggering electoral defeat was not enough to get the message across to the President. Not that I expect it to do much good, but all we can do at this point is to continue to keep the pressure on by going to the streets, lobbying our elected representatives, and working to elect leaders (including a President in less than two years) who will work to end this crazy war.
Not that this suprises me or anything:
US President George W Bush intends to reveal a new Iraq strategy within days, the BBC has learnt.
The speech will reveal a plan to send more US troops to Iraq to focus on ways of bringing greater security, rather than training Iraqi forces.
The voters gave Mr. Bush “a thumpin’” a couple months back, but apparently, that wasn’t enough to stop him. Rather than getting the troops out as soon as possible and letting the Iraqis settle matters on their own (something they will do in any case, whether we pull out now or in a decade), he’s going to make matters worse by creating more dead Americans and Iraqis sooner.
I simply cannot express in words how disheartening and depressing this “new direction” is turning out to be.
