Saturday, December 23, 2006

Is Bush's "Way Forward" Insane?



On Decemeber 6, I seriously bgan to question the sanity of Bush's foreign policy. I've questioned the morality of the pre-emptive strike on Iraq from Day One. Earlier this week, I referred to this President as a maniac - specifically:
A reporter named Karen [at the end-of-year Press Conference] was treated like a criminal by Bush for asking Bush a certain question. Bush acted like the reporter was trying to play "gotcha" with him when, in reality, she was representing the millions of confused Americans who are looking to this maniac for leadership and who get only a defensive brush-off in return.
I wasn't being glib. I don't say these things lightly and I'm not alone. Senator John Kerry has reservations about the sanity of those making decisions about the Iraq war.
...Changing tactics in the face of changing conditions on the ground, developing new strategies because the old ones don't work, is a hell of a lot smarter than the insanity of doing the same thing over and over again with the same tragic results.
We aren't exactly sure what Bush's "way forward" is yet. He can't decide. We have to wait until after the holidays for him to come up with something. That "something" doesn't seem likely to have much of anything to do with the conclusions from all the hard work the Baker/Hamilton Iraq Study Group did to make a last ditch effort to try to save Bush's legacy. New Sectretary of Defense Robert Gates went to Iraq and took his dictation from the 'good soldiers' whose lips said "let's stay and fight" while their hearts screamed, "Please get us out of this disastrous quagmire."

Meanwhile,
Draft Would Help Society, Says VA Chief

Just as the President mulls over boosting troop levels in Iraq, his Veterans Affairs Secretary [Jim Nicholson] is quoted in an AP story saying that "society would benefit" if the US "were to bring back the draft and that it shouldn't have any loopholes for anyone who is called to serve." Jim Nicholson, the VA chief, "later issued a statement saying he does not support reinstituting a draft." Another AP dispatch notes "the administration has for years forcefully opposed bringing back the draft, and the White House said Thursday that its position had not changed."
Either VA chief Nicholson has a split personality or someone told him to back off on his happy talk about the draft - for now. Don't hide your heads in the sand. You know it's coming.

2 comments:

TomCat said...

Jude, I saw that press conference, and agree that Crawford Caligula was completely out of line, as usual. I'm convinced that he will adopt the American Enterprise Institute plan to escalate the war, or something very close to it.

I would support a draft, if and only if the likelihood to be drafted and put in a combat unit was directly tied to family income, so the children of the super-rich, the ones who benefit financially from Bush's war would be the first to serve.

Anonymous said...

I've often said that we could not attack Iran without a military draft. The experience in Iraq pretty much proves that. So we "surge" more troops into Iraq, while simultaneously provoking Iran, Iran gets more belligerent...and we end up with a draft.