Iraq is NOT a "single issue"

[welshTerrier2]

it's always disturbing to see some of our usually sharp DU'ers refer to Iraq as a "single issue" ... it isn't ...

Iraq is US imperialism
Iraq is US militarism
Iraq is oil
Iraq is a "Big Oil" theft
Iraq is record all-time oil profits
Iraq is record gas prices
Iraq is greedy lobbyists
Iraq is no-bid contracts
Iraq is a badly overextended military
Iraq is a depleted domestic National Guard
Iraq is dead and wounded Americans
Iraq is dead and wounded Iraqis
Iraq is flag-draped coffins hidden from view
Iraq is $250 million per day
Iraq is "guns not butter"
Iraq is generational war with Islam
Iraq is Democrats afraid to stand against bush
Iraq is a "stop loss" draft
Iraq is military families buying protective gear
Iraq is post traumatic stress syndrome
Iraq is homeless veterans
Iraq is a divided America
Iraq is a divided Democratic Party
Iraq is production service agreements (PSA's)
Iraq is an American puppet
Iraq is US controlled media
Iraq is permanent bases
Iraq is regional instability in the Middle East
Iraq is the end of the American empire
Iraq is the slow death of the American soul
Iraq is the imperial presidency
Iraq is a war and occupation based on lies
Iraq is a country with no infrastructure
Iraq is poisoned with depleted uranium
Iraq is a failed Congress
Iraq is a failed MSM
Iraq is US propaganda
Iraq is broken alliances
Iraq is the loss of US prestige
Iraq is a civil war
Iraq is devastated

feel free to add to the list ...

the best you can offer is another year in Iraq Senate Democrats? no thank you!!!

[AlamoDemoc]

1. Indeed, Iraq is not the single issue, and your list is an evidence to that

[bluerum]

2. Iraq is tens of thousands of innocents killed.

[kentuck]

3. Excellent point, WT2...

War affects our lives in so many ways....Thanks for pointing that out.

[jonnyblitz]

4. one of my pet peeves also. it's an intellectually disingenuous

thing to claim that Iraq is just a mere single issue like any other, which is what is implied by the apologists for pro-war DEMS.

good post as usual. :thumbsup:

[Warpy]

5. People who piss and moan about "single issue voters"

are just put out because your deal breaker issue is not the same as their deal breaker issue.

Mine is choice. I will not vote for an antiwoman candidate, not ever, no matter what his other credentials are.

Howevr, the war is getting up there, too.

[whistle]

6. But George W Bush Iraq is WMD, Condi said Iraq is Mushroom Clouds

...the offical White House rationale was that Iraq caused 9-11, so that apparently makes all that you have listed okay in the conservatives mind :donut: Dunkin Donut anyone?

[Generator]

7. Iraq is the lie that was the fourth of July

Oh great country! Oh stupidity! Oh vain glory! Oh greatness! Stayed away from all news and let the kids go to the fireworks. But Iraq was having to walk by a newspaper with the words about a some soldier raping and murdering someone in a country that has nothing to do with me and that will cost more of our greatness for years to come. That's America 2006. That was the big joy of this fourth of July. Lies and sadness and rape and murder and death. And for? Lies and propaganda. Yeah, it's not one issue, it's the soul of a nation that hasn't learned a damn thing since 1968.

[question everything]

8. Unfortunately, it is, for most voters

Unfortunately, you cannot translate this to "sound bites" - which, as we know, is what win elections.

In reality all your points can be understood by people who think beyond their immediate sphere of family and friends. Most voters, especially the ones holding two or more jobs, struggling to make ends meets are not concern about Iraq. Not even if they have a loved one there.

For most voters news from Iraq now blend into the background. Abortion, gays, baseball, summer vacation (on credit cards) price of gasoline, danger of losing their homes, danger of losing their jobs, or their health care coverage - all these are up close and personal and of immediate important. At least, Rove make sure that the first two are there prominently.

If we are going to run on Iraq and on impeachment we are going to lose. Big. We might as well reconcile to the fact that the Republicans will control every aspect of political life for the next 25 years. Until new politicians will come who will understand the voters, who will now how to talk to voters - at 5th grade level if needed. Who will be able to formulate the issues that are important to the voters in simple and clear terms. And then, once they are in office, will use their time to implement the more complex points.

[Dr Fate]

19. No most voters understand that "we need to take care of America, not Iraq"

And most voters would understand it it if you added a detail like "The BILLIONS & BILLIONS of Dollars we spend in Iraq should be used for X, Y & Z instead."

But first we have to SAY that-or something like it- perhaps in those 5th grade terms you spoke of. ;)

Ignoring or downplaying "the" issue and playing it safe is what bought us the "flip-flpper" label and is what led voters to believe we do not have a plan.

[annabanana]

9. It is also a mercenary's wet dream.. . . n/t

[Hissyspit]

10. If Liebermann doesn't have the judgment to not fall for the Bushit,

and to not admit he was wrong, one it becomes OVERWHELMINGLY clear that he was wrong, than even if it WERE a single issue, which it is not, it is one worth tossing him out on.

[Donna Zen]

11. Thank you

Iraq is our health care lost
Iraq is our education system starved
Iraq is our Constitutional freedoms usurped
Iraq is our loss of way in the 21st century
Iraq is our lack of R & D
Iraq is our shame

All of these politicians who make grand promises know that we have wasted the money on bombing a third world country into the stone age.

[welshTerrier2]

12. you're very welcome, DZ!!

thanks so much for the excellent additions to the list ...

[Donna Zen]

13. WT2

This war is breaking my heart. No matter how cynical I may be, I really never wanted to watch my country go down.

It is rare that people can wrap their minds around what this war is really doing. I was just watching Robin Wright, who is generally pretty good. Tonight she did not disappoint. She said that not only are other countries angry with us, they no longer trust us. The future on our shrinking planet will demand that we can work with other countries for economic survival. All the politicos doing the yada yada are full of shit.

RFK jr. on Charlie Rose tonight. He gets it.

Iraq is America's iceberg

Daniel Webster on the occassion of the one hundredth anniversary of George Washington’s birthday.


Other misfortunes may be borne or their effects overcome. If disastrous war should sweep our commerce from the ocean, another generation my renew it. If it exhaust our Treasury, future industry may replenish it. If it desolate and lay waste our fields, still, under a new cultivation, they will grow green again and ripen to future harvests. It were but a trifle even if the walls of yonder Capitol were to crumble, if its lofty pillars would fall, and its gorgeous decorations be all covered by the dust of the valley. All these might be rebuilt. But who shall reconstruct the fabric of demolished government? Who shall rear again the well-proportioned columns of constitutional liberty? Who shall frame together the skillful architecture which unites national sovereignty with State rights, individual security, and public prosperity? No. If these columns fall, they will be raised not again. Like the Colosseum and the Parthenon, they will be destined to a mournful, a melancholy immortality. Bitterer tears, however, will flow over them than were shed over the monuments of Roman or Grecian art. For they will be the remnants of more glorious edifice than Greece or Rome ever saw: the edifice of constitutional American liberty.

[welshTerrier2]

14. what's your Iraq plan?

i know how strongly you believe in General Clark ... frankly, i haven't kept up with his positions on Iraq at all ...

my last encounter with him left me with the impression he was largely about building regional diplomacy but that we couldn't "just leave" ... some of his supporters, and this was probably more than a year ago, said the General believed we had a very narrow window, maybe just a couple of months, after which we would be forced to just get out ... that's my best recollection ...

where is he now? where are you now?

i've been very hardcore "Out Now" from day one ... no matter what arguments others raise about why we should stay, my overriding view is that bush is NOT trying to end the war and occupation ... all voting for more war does is enable his evil plot to make a puppet regime of the Iraqi government, build permanent military bases to guard the oil fields and the pipelines, force the Iraqis to sign PSA's (already done) to steal their oil and turn Iraq into a US colony ... with that as my core belief, it makes no sense to remain even one more day ...

so, whaddya think?

[Donna Zen]

16. Iraq

First I think that you and I and General Clark would all agree that bush is in charge of the whole damn thing. Therefore, anything WE say means zip. Sorry, but that is the bitter truth. Which kinda neutralizes many of our differences because we're in the same boat: we want out, but are being governed by fools. As for his window, he said that he is not sure, but it may have already closed, or there is a chance for a D instead of the F. Yes, he wants regional talks.

One thing I do know is that Clark believes that 2006 is all important. He said that the loss of the courts will pale compared to what will happen if we don't win one house. He said that we will not recognize our country. The other thing that he has said is that Democrats running for 08 now are distorting the message, and sucking up money that we need now for 06.

With so many already running, it is very difficult to get the Democrats to agree on a policy. Clark spent hours and months just getting them to the position that they rolled out. He wants to avoid the republican trap of having us suggest plans that they can then ridicule. Our message should be that bush failed.

He said that what is being discussed in Washington is just bumper stickers.

Iraq is a war that we didn't have to fight.

[AtomicKitten]

15. Wow. Spelled it out is breathtaking. -- K&R

My visits have been fleeting here today at DU, and I missed this before now (thanks for the nudge!)

Lieberman refers to Iraq as a single-issue, like it's regarding traffic or goat cheese or some other less than earth-shattering issue, like it's no big whoop.

Au contraire. It's everything, and nothing else will be right until this is remedied.

And it starts with Lamont.

You rule, wt2. :)

[AtomicKitten]

17. bedtime kick

[Dr Fate]

18. Thank you- I was almost waiting for someone to call it a "pet issue"

These Lieberman apologists are a trip!

It is, in fact THE most important, all encompassing issue of our lifetime.

Iraq IS the economy.

Iraq IS healtcare.

Iraq IS immigration.

IRAQ IS indeed anything that costs us money.

[FrenchieCat]

20. Iraq is contributing greatly to American poverty as well......

250 million per day is an awful lot of money that we are spending.

[Dr Fate]

21. Yeah- we could rebuild NO with that kinda cash money.

But by suggesting that, I guess I'm being a "single issue voter" ;)

[Selatius]

22. Iraq will determine the future course of US history

What we do here today will echo across several future decades.

[ndcohn]

23. by that standard...

don't you think you could make one of these lists for EVERY issue, like health care, or education, or energy?

either iraq is one issue, or everything isn't.

[Dr Fate]

24. No, because the scope & consequences are not the same.

Health care & education aint war.

And realy, the 3 issues you list are engulfed by Iraq- energy is connected to it's hip, issue wise, & the other two issues are unfocused on & underfunded b/c of Iraq.

You *could* make some other strawman list to knock down, but it would not be valid like this one.

[Douglas Carpenter]

25. thank you, thank you, thank you.. recommended

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientist and the hope of its children. This is not a way of life at all; under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower

[BelgianMadCow]

26. good reframe!! A LOT of what is going wrong is linked to Iraq

if you think about Iraq as more than "a war", but also a policy decision.
Look at who decided, when, why...and how.

Who : Cheney / Perle / Wolfowitz

When : PNAC wanted it since 1998, Bushco since being in office (secret energy meetings). Starting the war claiming Saddam does not let inspectors in, but in fact they had to flee FOR the war.

Why : Big Oil & the MIC and PNAC

How : using the collective fear after 911 to lie and decieve the US into war, disregarding huge protest from around the world, and dismissing the UN in the process. Throw out all intelligence people who don't agree with your flase case for war, and throw out the generals when their planning is not to your liking. Oh, and dismantling freedoms at a rate of one per quarter.

Iraq exposes Bushco for the secretive liars-for-profit they are.


I totally agree, it bothered me as well when Lieberman used that on Lamont.

[CTLawGuy]

27. kick

absolutely 100% right on the money.

[Senator]

28. Iraq is what they TERRORIZED the nation into accepting...

...with bomb threats of "mushroom clouds...in 45 minutes."

Impeachment may also seem like a "single issue." But you can impeach over war crimes, impeach over Iraq deaths, impeach over illegal spying, impeach over stolen elections, impeach over the environment, over stealing the treasury, over and over and over...

Remember, your reason to impeach need not be "the" reason that's on the formal articles.

Without impeachment, the DC Dems can offer nothing. Even with a brand new non-veto-proof majority.

They pretend that this never-elected, never-legitimate (ego)maniac isn't perfectly happy to just chuckle his way through two more years of "rule by signing statement."

How they maintain this delusion is beyond me.

--

[robbedvoter]

29. I wish Lamont had read your post before the debate.

beautifully said!:applause: