Getting Us OUT

[G_j]

http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/10216

Getting Us Out


Robert Dreyfuss is a freelance writer based in Alexandria, Virginia, who specializes in politics and national security issues. He is currently working on a book about America's policy toward political Islam over the past 30 years.


As long as we are remembering Vietnam analogies, here’s one: after the Tet Offensive in 1968, after Eugene Mc Carthy’s stunning electoral showing in New Hampshire, a group of elite American policymakers (graybeard, Clark Clifford-types all) read the riot act to Johnson about Vietnam: get out! A month later, LBJ announced a bombing halt and then said he would not run for re-election that year. It wasn’t the end, of course. Eugene McCarthy didn’t get the nomination, Tricky Dick got elected, and the war dragged on for five more years.

Still, Johnson was humbled. Is there any chance that can happen to George W. Bush? It’s the only hope for Iraq now. An establishment, bipartisan elite must emerge to order the bumbling president out of Iraq, now. Protests won’t do it, nor reason. Passionate speeches, even the best ones, such as Robert Byrd’s April 7, won’t do it. President Bush’s Iraq policy is now certifiably criminally insane, and only a soft coup d’etat, a la 1968, can stop him.

The neocons, though weakened, are still calling the shots. Any chance that Bush will break with the war party on his own is zero. Here’s why: First, Bush is notorious for thinking in black and white terms, eliminating the possibility that he could consider a more complex solution to the quagmire in Iraq. So he is likely to heed those who want to hit back, and hard. Second, the U.S. military, whose leaders never supported Bush’s war, is now in full hoo-ah mode since Fallujah, and wants revenge. So the brass isn’t likely to be looking for an exit strategy, only bloodletting. And the neocons themselves are out for blood, demanding what Bill O’Reilly calls the "second war in Iraq." The always-delightful Bill Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, says the crisis in Iraq doesn’t change a thing: "There has been no fundamental change in our views. I have been wrong on some things but I don't think I would fundamentally repudiate anything I wrote. The Middle East is complicated and some places can never be reformed. It is a wild overstatement to say that containment is a thing of the past. . . we are not abandoning that."

The neocons call for a crackdown includes demands for more U.S. forces in Iraq, tougher tactics, and, as Bill Safire wrote in The New York Times April 7, "no more Mr. Nice Guy." So America is firebombing mosques, surrounding entire cities with armor and barbed wire, and turning a whole nation into a free-fire zone. Bush has unleashed demons that perhaps can’t any longer be controlled. Iraq is headed for a 10-year war of resistance if America stays, and a catastrophic, ethnic-cleansing civil war if we hand the country to Ahmad Chalabi and the Governing Clowncil later this year.

..more..

[mike_c]

1. even more frightening are the democrats calling for more...

...troops, alternative strategies, etc. America f*cked up, big time. It's time to admit that. Unfortunately, in an atmosphere where politicians from both parties will not even discuss the real reasons for invading Iraq, there is NO chance for admitting mistakes, mea culpas, frigging honesty, or even searching for rational ways out of this. America has succeeded-- with Israel's encouragement and help-- in creating a Southeast Asian conflict for the twenty-first century. Iraq is only the beginning.

[G_j]

2. well said

It's all a LIE! these people make me want to scream!!!! :argh:

[EastofEdon]

3. it is a very bad deja vu

I can't believe this is happening again!
fools!

[Stone_Spirits]

4. "Bush has unleashed demons"

its true

:scared:

[BeFree]

5. Solution to this war on the Iraqi People

Draft all middle aged white guys that make over $100,000 a year. The war would stop so fast....

Friends, and fellow lovers of peace, while we can rest, assured that we played no personal part in inflicting this War upon the poor innocent Iraqis, that period of rest must soon come to an end. It is quite evident that we can not entrust the elite establishment to bring this sad episode to an end anytime soon. It is we, the peace lovers, who must wage our own kind of war on the killers of the innocents. We must unite, go forth and convince the elites that they are wrong because what they have begun will lead to the end of everything we hold dear.

Never doubt that we are the righteous. Never doubt that our cause is the cause of the masses of the world's citizens. Never doubt that failure is impossible.

[G_j]

6. great idea

I wish we could draft these guys.

I agree we MUST unite to stop this! I know we are all exhausted but we must stop the insanity. It's going to get worse. It's true Bush has unleashed demons. We cannot back down.