Everything that needs to be known is now known: The reasons the Bush Administration gave for the American war in Iraq were all falsehoods or deceptions, and every day the US occupation continues deepens the very problems it was supposed to solve...
The war has also become the single greatest threat to our national security. Its human and economic costs are spiraling out of control, with no end in sight. It has driven America's reputation in the world to a historic low point...
Americans are well on their way to a full appreciation of the dimensions of this debacle. In an October CBS news poll, 59 percent of citizens surveyed and 73 percent of Democrats now want an end to US military involvement in Iraq. But this growing majority has made its judgment with virtually no help from our nation's leaders. Most shameful has been the Democratic Party's failure to oppose the war. Indeed, support for it has been bipartisan...
...typical, however, are the other presidential hopefuls, Senators Hillary Clinton, Joseph Biden and Evan Bayh, who continue to huddle for cover in "the center." They offer little alternative to Bush's refrain "We must stay the course!" Nor do the party's Congressional leaders and its head, Howard Dean, once a leader of antiwar sentiment. Can such politicians, who cannot even follow a majority--in the Democratic Party, a large majority--really be considered leaders?
In fact they can not. But the fact is by all parameters in the Party they are, and people like Conyers, Waxman, and Boxer remain on the outside pulling the Democrats out of their folly. Recently this has shown signs of shifting but with the Republican majority united in Congress with the administration and the most powerful Democrats waffling, it would take only a small shift in the polls to silence the opposition leaders once more. Why is this?
The difficult truth is that the amount of money the people profitting off of Endless War can bring to the campaign dwarfs the amount the rest of us can bring bear on the issue.
This money can buy many things, and not just air time. Some ethical, many not. Which brings up the other ugly truth. When the game is rigged, the cheaters have a real advantage.
Despite what we tell the kids, the good guys do not always win. More typically the winners tell the story to make themselves sound good. If we really call ourselves the reality-based community we should face that.
I'm not saying we should develop our own dirty tricks brigade. You don't win playing the opponents game. You do it by changing the game altogether.
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2 comments:
Why anyone would look for moral leadership in a herd of politicians is beyond me.
Sir, you obviously have a brain.
It seems for about a third of Americans it suffices to wave the flag, proclaim your moral rectitude, and invoke their prejudices.
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