Bush today called 70% of the American people "irresponsible"

Seriously. This is important what happened today. In an effort to sell his Iraq escalation plan, Bush went on the offense and accused the overwhelming majority of Americans who have concerns about his plan of being "irresponsible." That speaks volumes to both Bush's arrogance and his disdain for the American people. Apparently, now the debacle in Iraq is your fault, our fault. It's everybody's fault but Bush and the Republican party who brought us this war in the first place. Our country simply cannot afford two more years of this man in power. Read the rest of this post...

The war is unpopular because of the media, according to Blair

Let's have a big "waaaahhhh" for Tony Blair, who is jumping on the classic Republican game of blaming the media for all of his problems. The war is not unpopular because of the media, it's unpopular because it is going down as one of the biggest mistakes in modern history, full of tales of corruption and incompetence with splashes of arrogance and deceit to top it all off.

The reality is that the US and UK went to war thanks to a well orchestrated media push that singled out and punished dissenters, labeling them as enemies of the state instead of voices within a democractic system. Crying now about the media turn today is weak and whiney, but when you have nothing left but a pile of lies and a tarnished history that ties you to an expensive and deadly catastrophe, what else can you say? Read the rest of this post...

Here we go again - Gates talking about surge and then exit

Hope runs eternal. Another day and the same old pitch: Just after (fill in the blank) we can start bringing the troops home. If we hadn't already heard this countless times before, we might actually sort of, kind of believe it. The problem is that we've been here too many times and the trust is long gone. Read the rest of this post...

I have a plan for bringing Terri Schiavo back from the dead

I was watching "The Mummy 2" on the plane back from France, and I now have a plan for bringing Terri Schiavo back from the dead. I recognize that many are skeptical. And they have a right to express their views, and express them forcefully. But those who refuse to give this plan a chance to work have an obligation to offer an alternative that has a better chance for success. To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible. Read the rest of this post...

The raid on Iran's consulate was approved by the decider

When Bush was talking escalation, Bush meant escalation. Not just Iraq. No. He wants a much bigger war. He's out of control:

A recent series of American raids against Iranians in Iraq was authorized under an order that President Bush decided to issue several months ago to undertake a broad military offensive against Iranian operatives in the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.

“There has been a decision to go after these networks,” Ms. Rice said in an interview with The New York Times in her office on Friday afternoon, before leaving on a trip to the Middle East.

Ms. Rice said Mr. Bush had acted “after a period of time in which we saw increasing activity” among Iranians in Iraq, “and increasing lethality in what they were producing.” She was referring to what American military officials say is evidence that many of the most sophisticated improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, being used against American troops were made in Iran.

So, are we at war with Iran now? At the beginning of this week, it didn't seem like we were. Now, it seems like we are.

The situation in Iraq gets worse by the day. Bush and Cheney talked for years about how they wanted to project an image of American strength. Now, they have the greatest power in the world pinned down by insurgents in Iraq. Doesn't quite project strength.

In the long term, it will take decades to overcome this disaster. But, in the short term, Bush's war-mongering must be reined in. On Thursday, Senator Hagel said he would resist "the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam." So, resist already. Read the rest of this post...

Saturday Morning Open Thread

You know what to do. Just start threading the news. Read the rest of this post...

US raid on al Qaida in Somalia a major failure - innocent civilians killed and wounded

When I read the headlines of the US air raid in Somalia that killed a top al Qaida leader on the morning of Bush's "new" plan for Iraq, my first thought was that we've been here before, but who knows, maybe they got it right this time. Taking out the top bad guys who have killed Americans is what the real war on terror is supposed to be about.

Sadly, the non-Pentagon-hype truth is out and once again our raid on terrorists with guns a blazin' turned out to be 70 nomads who were seeking water and villagers in a fishing village and not al Qaida leaders. Who gathers this intelligence and then makes these aggressive plans? Haven't we seen raids like this in Afghanistan and Iraq over and over and over? As bad as our reputation is, you would expect something better and not another adventure of the Keystone Cops with deadly force. Read the rest of this post...