Newsweek: Crescendo of Concern (Bush needs to be frank about Iraq)

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8258587/site/newsweek/

Crescendo of Concern
Americans want their soldiers home; Congress is getting angry about the conduct of the war. It’s time for Bush to start being frank about Iraq.
By Eleanor Clift

Newsweek

Updated: 3:22 p.m. ET June 17, 2005

June 17 - There aren’t many sons and daughters of elected officials dying in Iraq. Army helicopter pilot Matthew Lourey might be the first. His mother, Becky Lourey, is a state senator in Minnesota and an outspoken opponent of the war. She and other family members tried to talk Lourey, who at 40 was nearing retirement from the military, out of signing up for a second tour. But even though he had doubts about the war, he felt duty-bound to return to the battlefield.


This is President Bush’s legacy. Mothers don’t want their children to join the military. Who would have thought that not even four years after 9/11 and the biggest surge of patriotism the country had seen in at least a generation, the military would be having trouble getting people to enlist. By taking the country into a war that we don’t know how to win and can’t afford to lose, Bush has squandered his second term and made Americans less safe and less economically secure.

Minnesota Rep. Betty McCollum spent Memorial Day with the Lourey family. She voted against going to war with Iraq, and she objected to a provision tucked into Bush’s education bill, No Child Left Behind, that allows military recruiters into high schools for the first time. McCollum is no fan of the president, and when the White House called to offer her a seat on Air Force One to accompany Bush to Minnesota for a pep rally on the Medicare prescription drug program, she turned down the invitation. “I could hear my mother’s voice saying, don’t accept anything from a man you don’t really like,” she told NEWSWEEK.

Maybe it was the polls this week showing a crescendo of concern about the war. Six in 10 Americans now say some or all of the 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq should come home. A belated blast of media attention on the so-called Downing Street memo, British minutes of meetings in the summer of 2002 about intelligence being “fixed” around the idea of regime change in Iraq, is raising questions about Bush’s credibility at a time when his optimistic pronouncements about Iraq are being tested. Washington insiders knew war was inevitable, but that’s not what Bush was telling the country or the Congress, and now that the war isn’t going well, members of Congress are angry at having been manipulated.

<</SNIP>>

[gratuitous]

1. Eleanor? We're over two years into this invasion

I'm so old, I remember a time when going to war was a sober (no pun intended) undertaking, requiring the most solemn consideration. The United States wasn't supposed to call on its young men (and now women) to defend the country unless the direst of circumstances obtained.

Now, more than two years after Commander Bunnypants and his draft-dodging cohort* inveigled the country into an ill-considered invasion without neither cause nor coherent plan, you're just now figuring out that Mr. Bush needs to level with the country?

As bad as Mr. Bush and his sins have been (and they've been numerous and heinous), Ms. Clift, with all due respect, fuck you and your snoozing media colleagues who slept at the switch while Bush was sending our young people off to kill and die, emptying our Treasury into the overstuffed pockets of his corporate cronies, and lying in the face of the nation the whole time.

You and your big media buddies are spinning hard to persuade us that the revelation that Bush lied us into war is "old news" or that "everybody knew" the intelligence was being carefully trimmed to serve the foregone conclusion that the United States was going to war. Well, if you knew it, and you didn't tell us, you're a bunch of arrogant, heartless monsters. And now you're calling on the administration to be "frank" with the American people? Why did it take tens of thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars for you bastards to wake up? Do you finally see what's happened to our country? Are you as appalled, finally, as we have been for three years and more by this renegade, outlaw administration? Or do the poll numbers finally release you to tell the truth, three years too late?

Fuck you again, Eleanor Clift. Fuck you and burn in hell.

*Commander Bunnypants and His Draft-Dodging Cohort would be a very cool name for a band.

[longship]

2. Wow! What a great response letter.

I hope you sent it to her.

[indie_voter]

4. Maybe I am missing something, but

I think Eleanor Clift is one of the good guys in this fight.

She includes the key phrase from the DSM:

British minutes of meetings in the summer of 2002 about intelligence being “fixed” around the idea of regime change in Iraq, is raising questions about Bush’s credibility at a time when his optimistic pronouncements about Iraq are being tested.

She then points out (emphasis mine)

Washington insiders knew war was inevitable, but that’s not what Bush was telling the country or the Congress , and now that the war isn’t going well, members of Congress are angry at having been manipulated.

And there is this paragraph

The gap between what the American people saw on their television screens and what they heard from their political leaders back then gave rise to the phrase “credibility gap.” Bush is flirting with the same fate. He can’t be frank with the American people about Iraq. He may not even be capable of being honest with himself about the way events are unfolding.

MHO, she gets it.

[Karenina]

13. Rude Pundit lives up to his moniker

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1863460#1863555

[katinmn]

14. I agree. I thought it was a good column!

I'll take this any day over WaPo's Milbank. I'm going to offer praise rather than complaints.

She is writing about many things not only the DSM. This is about "a Crescendo of Concern," which is about the turning of the tide we're all feeling.

This was written for a broad swath of middle America and not just the left.

She covered:

Bush's sinking poll numbers
DSM
Angry Congress
Bush lied
Bi-partisan support for withdrawal

Her one story is not going to make or break public opinion but her column sure adds to the chorus of voices saying Bush lied, invading Iraq was a collosal mistake, and we need to fix it.

[babylonsister]

5. Wonderful rant, gratuitous! nt

[Kahuna]

9. It might be wonderful. But it is aimed at the wrong person.

Eleanor is a decent progressive, Democrat who has never been pro war or pro bush. She has been the almost lone voice in the wilderness speaking truth to power about the bushitas. So, what is the point of insulting her?

[senseandsensibility]

7. I concur! Please send this to Eleanor

This namby pampy weenie halfway "criticism" of * after the total trainwreck of his presidency should be clear to everyone is not funny anymore.:banghead: Grow a spine, Eleanor. You're supposed to be a liberal. Why does your article sound like you're mildly uncomfortable with *'s speaking style or some such nonsense? This is SERIOUS.

[Kahuna]

8. Your anger is misplaced. Eleanor has never been pro invasion.,.

or pro bush. NEVER!

[Larkspur]

3. Squandering is what Bush excels at

This is President Bush’s legacy. Mothers don’t want their children to join the military. Who would have thought that not even four years after 9/11 and the biggest surge of patriotism the country had seen in at least a generation, the military would be having trouble getting people to enlist. By taking the country into a war that we don’t know how to win and can’t afford to lose, Bush has squandered his second term and made Americans less safe and less economically secure.

Unfortunately, it costs many innocent people their lives.

[FloridaPat]

6. Everyone wants * to be open with the people. Why? Just impeach the

liars.

[Imagevision]

10. Cheney said 2 weeks ago that insurgent problem will be over by 2009

So if you have any kids, 16-17 years of age? some will be dead by then.

[longship]

11. Dear Ms. Clift,

Dear Ms. Clift,

I am writing you in the hopes of influencing the current, appalling state of
journalism in this country. This morning I read your June 17, 2005 article,
"Crescendo of Concern". Although obviously heart-felt, true, and good, it
ignores the big picture of the Downing Street Minutes. The Downing Street
Minutes are just the most recent abrogation by journalists to report the facts
surrounding the United States going to war against Iraq. Most regrettably, this
is part of a much larger problem of journalists systematically ignoring
this administration's excesses.

In no particular order, journalists substantially stood by while

* an illegal war was justified on clearly fraudulent reasons.

* Constitutional rights were legislated away by the Orwellian-named
Patriot Act.

* international treaties were shredded, in particular those governing
the conduct of war.

* people were transported to third world countries so that they
may be tortured.

* prisons were established outside of our borders solely for the purpose
of removing them and their detainees from Constitutional protections.

* your own journalistic world was undermined by overt and direct White
House manipulation.

* corruption and abuse of power by a reckless majority became normal
procedures in both houses of our national congress.

* partisans flagrantly manipulated federal and local elections.

* a minority party who represent (over) half the populace was
demonized, ennervated, and relegated into holding meetings in dark
basement chambers.

There are many who hold journalists personally and professionally responsible for this
mess. Afraid to speak to the facts and challenge the distortions and lies,
journalists stood by and just let it all happen.

How much farther down the road to one-party oligarchy do we need to go? How
much longer do the people of this country have to suffer? How many more
thousands have to die? Pray tell, what event is sufficient to shock
journalists out of their dream-sleep?

We in the Blogosphere can no longer afford the luxury of waiting for you to
again assume your mandated responsibilities. Things have already gone too far.
We are actively taking on the mandate that you journalists have set down.

Ms. Clift, I've seen you get tough and speak truth to power on many occasions.
Please harden yourself to the task and join us, or help us. We need you.

Thank you for all you've done in the past and good luck to you in the future.


Sincerely yours,

[Karenina]

12. PERFECT.

n/t