To: Raymond Duray who wrote (31213 ) 11/9/2003 9:27:43 AM From: stockman_scott Respond to of 89467 Iraq Spins Out of Control: Where are the Democrats and the Peace Movement? __________________________________ by Marc Cooper Published by the November 7, 2003 issue of LA Weekly commondreams.org <<...It’s the Islamic world that celebrates the just-initiated holy month of Ramadan — but it’s George W. Bush who better start praying. Maybe we all should. The conservative spin machine and its White House engineers can whine and sputter all they want about the supposed lack of good news from Iraq to be found in the media, but the simple fact is that there just isn’t any to be reported. Consider the toll of the past two weeks: 15 Americans killed in one missile attack, an average of 25 attacks a day against U.S. troops, a tightly coordinated string of car bombings, the shelling of the Al Rashid Hotel housing none other than Paul Wolfowitz, an assault that basically chased the Red Cross out of Iraq, escalated targeting of the newly trained police force and a rumor campaign that forced the shutdown of Baghdad’s public schools. The casualty toll reached more than four dozen dead and 200 wounded. Bush responds that the wholesale spilling of blood should be read as none other than a sign of our “success,” that the murder campaign in Iraq is but a sign of desperation. Sure. We’ve heard this kind of reasoning before. War Is Peace, Hate Is Love, Slavery Is Freedom. And that old standard: Arbeit Macht Frei. This official sense of denial is the scariest part of the whole Iraqi debacle. At least Richard Nixon came into office recognizing that somehow or other, the U.S. had to figure a way out of Vietnam. As wars go, Iraq’s still pretty small potatoes. But the unreality and rank politicization of the Bush policy, its drift and deception, and its mounting human and economic cost spell only continuing disaster Not that Congress, or the Democrats for that matter, plan to get in Bush’s way. The staggering $87 billion supplemental plan (read partial cost) passed along by the White House for the splendid little adventure was formally approved this past week without so much as a debate, let alone any sort of meaningful protest. Even some centrist Democrats, like syndicated columnist Matt Miller, were outraged at the obsequious rollover by their own party Here was a golden opportunity for some brave Democrat to revitalize the entire national debate, Miller wrote last week, by staging a filibuster. Not to deny the payment but to hold it hostage to a reversal of the Bush tax cuts...>>