THE FOG IS LIFTING

The Pentagon has issued a new report on the deteriorating situation in Iraq. Although they try to paint a smile on by claiming Iraq is not in a civil war, the facts speak for themselves. Killings in the thousands per month. Conflict that is not just based on an organized insurgency, but that is a chaotic mixture of rebels, armed Shia militias and neighborhood groups. Bombings, kidnappings, tortured bodies dumped on daylight streetcorners. Roving gun battles barely held in check by Coalition bodies.

People like Mosesknows like to smarmily ask the misguided question, "Do you want to win in Iraq, or not?" as if that is even the primary consideration. Even Waiting_for_Godot, who is a social liberal, completely misunderstands the threat we face. Most Americans, according to new polls, recognize that the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq are two distinct and separate things. Godot is like many neocons, still sunk in the fog, thinking that leaving Iraq will somehow empower terrorists. In fact, both the American people AND national security experts believe that the invasion of Iraq has made us MORE vulnerable to terrorism, for a variety of reasons.

For those, like Godot, who have been blinded by fear or anger, and who have been twirled around by Bush's lies and conservative propaganda, it may not be possible to fully unspin them from the web of neoconservative lies. The most important lesson to be learned is this: Neoconservatives were wrong about Iraq. They were wrong about every single prediction, recommendation, and every boast. It is now time to stop listening to liars and fools, and start listening to clearheaded and intelligent voices.

I would say now that neither party is on the right path, but that people like John Murtha, Chuck Hagel, Russ Feingold, Chris Shays, etc, are clearly pointing in a better direction than George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld. The only thing any of the latter group has been able to offer are platitudes, and the worst kind of demagogic propaganda, accusing those who have made careful and cogent criticisms of the president's policy of being appeasers, and of working for the enemy. Paltalk neocons regurgitate that rhetoric nearly verbatim, seemingly without irony, calling the enemy islamofascists without realizing that their words are very nearly identical to the fascist bile of a half-century ago.

JC