Surrender still an option

After the 2004 election, one liberal wrote, “The hopes of the world were dashed on Nov. 2, 2004.”

It’s true. We all mourn the passing of John Kerry’s candidacy. Not as much as I would have mourned the passing of Dean’s candidacy, but nevertheless I was sorry to see Kerry go down in flames as he did. Luckily for the 2006 election it looks like he and other Democrats are sticking to his failed campaign strategies.

In fact, on C-SPAN today, I happened to catch some of John Kerry's monotonal exposition of his amendment demanding our immediate surrender and swift retreat from Iraq. It's like watching the same campaign speech, or rather (de)moralizing lecture, over and over. In fact nothing seems to have changed in 35 years! To paraphrase star wars, 'The Vietnam template is strong with this one.'

This week, John Kerry will introduce an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill that will redeploy U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by the end of 2006.

John Kerry is calling for the withdrawal of United States forces under a schedule agreed upon with the new government of Iraq. This will legitimize the new Iraqi government, enable the Iraqis to become more self-reliant, and undermine support for the insurgency. ~kerry.senate.gov

Exactly, and we should have never invaded France to expel the Nazi's because we would only have increased their resistance. Instead, staying out of France would have actually undermined support for them and the Vichy Government, right?

The barely disguised sophistry of Kerry and Hart and the rest is just sad to see. There's nothing new here. It's the same old and tired mantra that is literally soaked in the amoral ambition of defeating 'America's Imperialist agressions'.

The ghost of Vietnam is a not a ghost for Democrats, it is a northern star by which they navigate the cold, dark, territorial waters of war. They find one answer and one answer only.

"The idea that we are going to win this war is an idea that unfortunately is just plain wrong," he said.

Calling Bush's plan in Iraq a "failed strategy," Dean said he and most Democrats support bringing home an estimated 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops within the next six months.

He said that he backed the redeployment of 20,000 troops to Afghanistan and a force in the Middle East to deal with al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, but not in Iraq.

"We cannot have our troops being targets there," he said. ~cnn.com

Welcome to the politics of Defeat and Retreat. "No, we don't want to surrender... we want to redeploy our forces" ...because we can't win.

The War in Vietnam and the War in Iraq are now converging in too many tragic respects.

As in Vietnam, we engaged militarily in Iraq based on official deception.

As in Vietnam, we went into Iraq ostensibly to fight a larger global war under the misperception that the particular theater was just a sideshow, but we soon learned that the particular aspects of the place where we fought mattered more than anything else.

And as in Vietnam, we have stayed and fought and died even though it is time for us to go.

We are now in the third war in Iraq in as many years. The first was against Saddam Hussein and his supposed weapons of mass destruction. The second was against terrorists whom, the administration said, it was better to fight over there than here. Now we find our troops in the middle of an escalating civil war. ~JohnKerry.com

We can't win.

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) says the United States needs to "change direction" in Iraq -- because "we can't win a war like this."

Murtha, appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday, said he's concerned about the financial and emotional costs of the war, not to mention the way it's being conducted:

"We're not fighting this war," Murtha said, referring to officials in Washington who sit in air-conditioned offices. "One percent of the American people, these young men and women are fighting this war, with heavy packs, with 70 pounds of equipment, with helmets on in 130 degrees. That's who's fighting this war." ~John Murtha

We can't win.

"It is not happening. We are not succeeding. ... Nothing that has transpired so far has made Iraq more stable," Pelosi, D-Calif. said. ~Nancy Pelosi

"2,500 troops killed, 18,000 wounded more than half of them permanently, the strain our military readiness and eroding our reputation in the world. Stay the course -- I don't think so. It's time to face the facts.

..."In the face of all of the incompetence and cost of this war, the President urges us to stay the course. 'Stay the course,' Mr. President, is not a strategy, it's a slogan. I will vote against this resolution because it is an affirmation of President Bush's failed policy in Iraq.

...This resolution is one thing only - it is an affirmation of President Bush's failed Iraq policy. The American people know that. Hopefully it will dawn on the President and instead of stay the course, he will change the course. He will stop digging the hole that he is digging in Iraq and come out and see the light of day, to what is the right direction. ~usnewswire.com

We can't win.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) told Fox News' Your World yesterday, "The very presence of our troops in Iraq fuels the insurgency."

We can't win.

"When I said we can't win a military victory, it's because the Iraqis have turned against us. They throw a hand grenade or a rocket into American forces, and the people run into the crowd and they — nobody tells them where they are," he said... ~foxnews

We can't win.

Bottom line: the twisted agenda of right-wing Christian fundamentalists, Pentagon warmongers, corporate war profiteers and the U.S. petroleum industry will reign supreme. And there will be no change in that balance of power until at least 2008 and (probably) much later. ~alternet.org

Democrats can't win.

Surrender still an option.

[H]egemonic Word count: 1019

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