Navhind Times (India): America sinking in Iraq quagmire. Bush AWOL, Dems met their Waterloo.

[Bluebear]

...Alas, this also means that the Iraq war to which no end is in sight has become from now onwards Gen Petraeus’s war, no longer Mr Bush’s, and this is something about which the President is pleased. On the other hand, as a distinguished commentator wrote, US’s Commander-in-Chief is “AWOL (away without leave) or has virtually abdicated”.

However, while the Republicans, shutting their eyes and ears to US’s endless woes in Iraq and loss of respect across the world are culpable, the Democrats, still exulting over their victory in last year’s Congressional elections, must also accept their share of blame for the current frustrating stalemate. Not only they have failed to produce any viable and convincing alternative policy for Iraq they failed even to question Gen Petraeus and Mr Crocker with anything resembling tenacity.

One reason for this may be that although Ms Hillary Clinton is virtually sure of getting it, almost all the important leaders of the Democratic Party are scrambling and squabbling over the presidential nomination. Rather than exposing the Republican leadership, they are busy upstaging one another. Moreover, there are leaders like Ms Hillary who happily voted with Mr Bush to start the Iraq War. How can they now denounce the dirty conflict as an unpardonable mistake?

It was on the Senate floor that the Democratic Party met its political Waterloo. Six Republican Senators had defied the party and joined them to put the Bush White House in the dock. But they were still four votes shy of the magic number of 60 necessary to prevent a filibuster by the Republicans. They just chickened out. Instead of facing the filibuster during which the nation’s problems could have been debated thoroughly, they just dropped the measures they were hoping to pass if they could have mustered the necessary sixty votes. Thus not only the Democratic scheduled for an accelerated withdrawal from Iraq went by the board but the dominant also dropped the bill to restore some of the rights and liberties Americans have lost as a result of Mr Bush’s war on terrorism.

It is no surprise therefore that there is widespread disappointment with the Congress as with the executive. It is a climate in which cynicism is bound to spread and, in any case, the Americans are getting more worried about the declining US economy than by the war in Iraq.

http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=092943

[Ghost in the Machine]

1. 1st rec.. thanks for posting this.. n/t

[Monk06]

2. Rec deux n/t

[midnight]

3. I thought about having a man in the w.h. who went awol. It makes

no sense to punish current awol soldiers if this one in the w.h. isn't punished.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. They forgot to add, "And we got their jobs. Very good."