The Disgrace in D.C.

I had intended to write about interesting people I've known, but there isn't much more interesting than the disgrace in D.C. We, the American people, sent a clear message to Washington in the recent elections. We said, "Get out of Iraq!". Mr Bush said he heard - but no. In fact, he said he would increase our human and financial investment there. The Senate has been dithering ever since the election and has yet to produce anything. The House managed to squeeze out a little, non-binding resolution. All the while young men and women die in Iraq, we spend billions for nothing, and the will of the people is ignored. Its the disgrace in D.C.

Supporters of Mr. Bush say that the non-binding resolution is meaningless and pointless and that it would be a disaster because of how bad it would be for military morale and how good it would be for enemy morale. It can't be both meaningless and a disaster but but they are so arrogant they keep saying it. Almost all of them are puffed up with their own importance. Mr. Bush is doing what he wants to do, regardless of Congress and the people. The press fails to ask follow up questions and and allows known falsehoods to go unchallenged. Its the disgrace in D.C.

We no longer have a good reason to be in Iraq (if we ever did) and don't have a good way to get out. I've been in relationships like that but at least they did end. Since we haven't won by now, we have lost. That's the way insurrections are. Now its all about finding a way out.

We are in a "war on terror" but terror is an abstract and a tactic. It reminds me of the war on crime, the war on drugs, and the war on poverty. We lost those too. Terrorist attacks have increased every year since Bush took office. They are attacks on American interests around the world. The paradigm of war is wrong. We need a new vocabulary that arises out of new ideas. Bush and these cold war neocons are frozen in a metaphor that doesn't work. Its the disgrace in D.C.

Too many Democrats and journalists have stood by and let Bush & Company have their way. We need a robust debate out in the open not the political cowardice that goes along to get along. This cowardice is the disgrace in D.C.