Another good "Special Comment" from Keith Olbermann
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/05/23/special-comment-the-only-things-truly-compromised-are-the-trust-of-the-votersfriends-and-family-in-iraq/
or
http://tinyurl.com/2m6c6z
Special Comment: "The only things truly "compromised" are the trust of the
voters.friends, and family, in Iraq"
This is, in fact, a comment about. betrayal.
Few men or women elected in our history-whether executive or legislative,
state or national-have been sent into office with a mandate more obvious,
nor instructions more clear: Get us out of Iraq.
Yet after six months of preparation and execution-half a year gathering the
strands of public support; translating into action, the collective will of
the nearly 70 percent of Americans who reject this War of Lies, the
Democrats have managed only this:
* The Democratic leadership has surrendered to a president-if not the
worst president, then easily the most selfish, in our history-who happily
blackmails his own people, and uses his own military personnel as hostages
to his asinine demand, that the Democrats "give the troops their money";
* The Democratic leadership has agreed to finance the deaths of Americans
in a war that has only reduced the security of Americans;
* The Democratic leadership has given Mr. Bush all that he wanted, with
the only caveat being, not merely meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for
the Iraqi government, but optional meaningless symbolism about benchmarks
for the Iraqi government.
* The Democratic leadership has, in sum, claimed a compromise with the
Administration, in which the only things truly compromised, are the trust of
the voters, the ethics of the Democrats, and the lives of our brave, and
doomed, friends, and family, in Iraq.
You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions-Stop The
War-have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform
support of those who elected you. for a handful of magic beans.
You may trot out every political cliché from the soft-soap,
inside-the-beltway dictionary of boilerplate sound bites, about how this is
the "beginning of the end" of Mr. Bush's "carte blanche" in Iraq, about how
this is a "first step."
Well, Senator Reid, the only end at its beginning. is our collective hope
that you and your colleagues would do what is right, what is essential, what
you were each elected and re-elected to do.
Because this "first step". is a step right off a cliff.
And this President!
How shameful it would be to watch an adult hold his breath, and threaten to
continue to do so, until he turned blue.
But how horrifying it is to watch a President hold his breath and threaten
to continue to do so, until innocent and patriotic Americans in harm's way,
are bled white.
You lead this country, sir?
You claim to defend it?
And yet when faced with the prospect of someone calling you on your
stubbornness-your stubbornness which has cost 3,431 Americans their lives
and thousands more their limbs-you, Mr. Bush, imply that if the Democrats
don't give you the money and give it to you entirely on your terms, the
troops in Iraq will be stranded, or forced to serve longer, or have to throw
bullets at the enemy with their bare hands.
How transcendentally, how historically, pathetic.
Any other president from any other moment in the panorama of our history
would have, at the outset of this tawdry game of political chicken, declared
that no matter what the other political side did, he would insure
personally-first, last and always-that the troops would not suffer.
A President, Mr. Bush, uses the carte blanche he has already, not to
manipulate an overlap of arriving and departing brigades into a 'second
surge,' but to say in unequivocal terms that if it takes every last dime of
the monies already allocated, if it takes reneging on government contracts
with Halliburton, he will make sure the troops are safe-even if the only
safety to be found, is in getting them the hell out of there.
Well, any true President would have done that, sir.
You instead, used our troops as political pawns, then blamed the Democrats
when you did so.
Not that these Democrats, who had this country's support and sympathy up
until 48 hours ago, have not since earned all the blame they can carry home.
"We seem to be very near the bleak choice between war and shame," Winston
Churchill wrote to Lord Moyne in the days after the British signed the
Munich accords with Germany in 1938. "My feeling is that we shall choose
shame, and then have war thrown in, a little later."
That's what this is for the Democrats, isn't it?
Their "Neville Chamberlain moment" before the Second World War. All that's
missing is the landing at the airport, with the blinkered leader waving a
piece of paper which he naively thought would guarantee "peace in our time,"
but which his opponent would ignore with deceit.
The Democrats have merely streamlined the process.
Their piece of paper already says Mr. Bush can ignore it, with impugnity.
And where are the Democratic presidential hopefuls this evening? See they
not, that to which the Senate and House leadership has blinded itself?
Judging these candidates based on how they voted on the original Iraq
authorization, or waiting for apologies for those votes, is ancient history
now.
The Democratic nomination is likely to be decided. tomorrow.
The talk of practical politics, the buying into of the President's dishonest
construction "fund-the-troops-or-they-will-be-in-jeopardy," the promise of
tougher action in September, is falling not on deaf ears, but rather falling
on Americans who already told you what to do, and now perceive your ears as
closed to practical politics.
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.
For, ultimately, at this hour, the entire government has failed us.
* Mr. Reid, Mr. Hoyer, and the other Democrats. have failed us. They
negotiated away that which they did not own, but had only been entrusted by
us to protect: our collective will as the citizens of this country, that
this brazen War of Lies be ended as rapidly and safely as possible.
* Mr. Bush and his government. have failed us. They have behaved
venomously and without dignity-of course.
That is all at which Mr. Bush is gifted.
We are the ones providing any element of surprise or shock here.
With the exception of Senator Dodd and Senator Edwards, the Democratic
presidential candidates have (so far at least) failed us.
They must now speak, and make plain how they view what has been given away
to Mr. Bush, and what is yet to be given away tomorrow, and in the thousand
tomorrows to come.
Because for the next fourteen months, the Democratic nominating
process-indeed the whole of our political discourse until further
notice-has, with the stroke of a cursed pen, become about one thing, and one
thing alone.
The electorate figured this out, six months ago.
The President and the Republicans have not-doubtless will not.
The Democrats will figure it out, during the Memorial Day recess, when they
go home and many of those who elected them will politely suggest they stay
there-and permanently.
Because, on the subject of Iraq the people have been ahead of the media..
Ahead of the government.
Ahead of the politicians.
For the last year, or two years, or maybe three.
Our politics. is now about the answer to one briefly-worded question.
Mr. Bush has failed.
Mr. Warner has failed.
Mr. Reid has failed.
So. Who among us will stop this war-this War of Lies? To he or she, fall
the figurative keys to the nation.
To all the others-presidents and majority leaders and candidates and
rank-and-file Congressmen and Senators of either party-there is only blame.
for this shameful, and bi-partisan, betrayal.
***
--
Aloha, G-Ride
The force that's forcing you to feel like busting up a Starbucks.
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