Someone Tell the President the War Is Over
Frank Rich nailed it in the New York Times this weekend. Tracy is right. It's a must read.
The money quote:
The endgame for American involvement in Iraq will be of a piece with the rest of this sorry history. "It makes no sense for the commander in chief to put out a timetable" for withdrawal, Mr. Bush declared on the same day that 14 of those Ohio troops were killed by a roadside bomb in Haditha. But even as he spoke, the war's actual commander, Gen. George Casey, had already publicly set a timetable for "some fairly substantial reductions" to start next spring. Officially this calendar is tied to the next round of Iraqi elections, but it's quite another election this administration has in mind. The priority now is less to save Jessica Lynch (or Iraqi democracy) than to save Rick Santorum and every other endangered Republican facing voters in November 2006.Nothing that happens on the ground in Iraq can turn around the fate of this war in America: not a shotgun constitution rushed to meet an arbitrary deadline, not another Iraqi election, not higher terrorist body counts, not another battle for Falluja (where insurgents may again regroup, The Los Angeles Times reported last week). A citizenry that was asked to accept tax cuts, not sacrifice, at the war's inception is hardly in the mood to start sacrificing now. There will be neither the volunteers nor the money required to field the wholesale additional American troops that might bolster the security situation in Iraq.
WHAT lies ahead now in Iraq instead is not victory, which Mr. Bush has never clearly defined anyway, but an exit (or triage) strategy that may echo Johnson's March 1968 plan for retreat from Vietnam: some kind of negotiations (in this case, with Sunni elements of the insurgency), followed by more inflated claims about the readiness of the local troops-in-training, whom we'll then throw to the wolves. Such an outcome may lead to even greater disaster, but this administration long ago squandered the credibility needed to make the difficult case that more human and financial resources might prevent Iraq from continuing its descent into civil war and its devolution into jihad central.
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The Last War -
Freedom, Peace and Security will NEVER be won nor secured by the sword, another war will always need to be fought to end the fear of the sharp blade against the vital thoughts of change.
The last war will be waged without soldiers or freedom fighters, without blood shed or death, no rockets red glare, no bombs bursting anywhere.
The last war will not cause suffering, broken hearts, splintered spirits, or shattered bodies and souls, the creation of nature and man will not be crushed under the rolling thunder of armored machines, chemicals will not rain down from above, maniacal viruses will not attack from within, suicide terror raids, genocide, and nuclear holocaust will have no place in the last war, the casualties will be the end of competition, industry, government and religion which plan for and carry out the destruction, addiction and control of others.
The last war will be waged BY THE PEOPLE FOR THE PEOPLE, a war where all things will be TREATED as equal, a war employing weapons of MASS COOPERATION, battles fought and won with tolerance for all, understanding of difference, awareness of responsibility, a war in which compassion and love conquer and destroy the final evil enemy of humankind, the last war, the mother of all wars, the war to end all wars, must be waged upon fear.
We the People, declare a global war on fear.
How do we the people start this war, how do we wage this war, how do we the people win the last war ?
We start by turning away from those who support fear, by denying our services, our employment, our political, financial, moral and spiritual support to those who build and profit from the economy of competition, addiction and war.
We wage the last war by demanding that our energy and environment be clean and renewable, by demanding that the thousands of billions of dollars spent yearly on making the weapons and means of war be shifted and added to the nearly meaningless hundreds of billions which is reluctantly parted out for social, health, education and domestic infrastructure.
We win the last war by simply entrusting our votes, our support, our children's and grandchildren's lives to those of US whose words and actions - DELIVER - compassion, love and truth.
We the people can, will and must defeat fear.
©Bruce Larson*Moore
- Of Poetic*Service -
Love*Rulz - {Available on DVD ;}
http://www.timeless-ink-press.com