Could the toxic red plume that has infested the standing tidal pools so long flooding the nation’s Capitol be turning? Hope springs eternal but it seems that many indicators point to a yes answer. Yesterday, we saw a patriot and a veteran, Congressman John Murtha, demand the immediate removal of troops from Iraq.
Our kids in uniform, are not state builders, not nation builders and they should not be policemen. They have not been trained for the duties that now confront them. They have been setup to fail. Let us bring them home as heroes, not failures. They have to be brought home now.
Finally, someone acknowledges state building, nation building diplomacy is not the purview of the military but must be left to the Iraqis themselves. Whether we can escape Iraq with the teetering aplomb of the British during the Ottoman wars remains to be seen.
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”
Theodore Roosevelt, prior to the First World War in 1918:
The NY Times seems to have found, at least partially, their sea legs once again and have been pounding the administration regarding the Plame leak. On Veterans’ Day, some newspapers posted graphic images of the Iraq siege, one including a photo of a dead Marine being carried back to base by his comrades.
