White House Victory?

Dear editor:

There must be celebrations going on in the White House now that the Iraq War spending bill has passed both houses of Congress and the president has stared down those “cut and run” Democrats who wanted to put timelines for our troops to leave Iraq into the legislation. Of course the victory shows the power of the bully pulpit that Mr. Bush has with vetoes that cannot be overturned by the slim margin that the majority Democrats have in both houses. But what kind of a victory is it, and who outside of the administration is really celebrating?

This victory will see a “surge” in American troops killed over the current (and rapidly increasing) 3,438, and wounding over 25,400. And there is no end in sight. The president said in a news conference that August will be a very bad month for American casualties. The first five months of the year haven’t been any better (through May 25th) with a total of 430 killed as compared to 293 war deaths for the same period last year. Every month this year has seen greater losses among our troops as compared to last year. This is victory?

And the American people aren’t celebrating. According to the newest Times/CBS poll taken this week, a majority, 76% (including 51% Republicans) say additional troops sent to Iraq this year either have had no impact or are making things worse. 63% say the United States should set a date for withdrawing our troops sometime in 2008. 61% say the country should never have gone into Iraq in the first place.

As for Mr. Bush’s performance, the numbers show the same trend. 23% approve of his handling the situation in Iraq and 72% disapprove. His campaign against terrorism? 52% disapprove.

But these numbers don’t mean anything to “W” or his small cadre of hard core war hawks. The words of President Abraham Lincoln, well known to every school child in America, evidently have not made it into the White House thinking. Remember? “Of the people, by the people and for the people.” Mr. Bush should try to appreciate those ten meaningful words and stop this meaningless killing.

Benchmarks???????

Dear editor:

“Benchmarks” is today’s key word in politics and is being used by both parties in Congress as the litmus test for judging whether or not the “troop surge” and “change in tactics” is successful in the Iraq war. The administration and our legislative branches of government keep referring to this goal, but do not define exactly what it means. Of course ambiguity in defining what these “benchmarks” are is useful to those who use the term, as it allows political flip-flopping and squirming when the time comes to judge victory or failure of our Iraqi adventure. But then again, the word “victory” has a constantly changing meaning as it slides down a slope of lowered expectations whenever the president defines our goals in that civil war-torn country.

Of course the ambiguous term “benchmarks,” as applied to the unspecified steps and control that the Iraqi government must take for the U.S. to be successful with its new tactics and surge, offers two possible scenarios for the president and his party’s future.

One possibility for these “benchmarks” would be the prayed for success of these actions that would see the eventual return of our troops to our homeland shores and the ceasing of American loss of life (now almost 3,400) and the end of the bleeding of our national economy, that has drained us of almost a trillion dollars. In addition, Iraq itself would be proven to have the will and ability to govern itself and bring peace to a land that has seen the carnage of war for so many years. Not only would the administration and the Republican Party want to see this result, but all America (including Democrats) would truly be thankful.

But one wonders if the other possibility is what is happening. What if the White House, the executive branch of our government that has told us over and over again about WMDs, Hussein trying to buy “yellow cake” for Uranium in Niger, prewar Iraqi ties to Al-Quida, Mission Accomplished, “Final throes of resistance,” is finally realizing that the war is un-winnable and is setting us up for failure? What if they are now setting the Iraqi government up as the scapegoat for their own incompetence and mistakes? This would allow them to turn to the American public and claim that they did all they could to bring democracy and freedom to those beleaguered people, but it was their own government that caused the loss of the war. This is what we all call “passing the buck,” and politicians of all stripes have been known to do this.

Either scenario is a possibility.

A Super Power?????

Dear editor:

So the war funding bill was vetoed.

The president and congress are now talking about “bench marks” for the Iraqi government to hit in order for us to continue our military, financial, rebuilding, and governmental support. These “bench marks,” according to the president and his sliding scale of defining “victory, determine how long we will stay and occupy that country. This is supposed to be the controlling factor for refunding the Iraqi war that the president and his administration started over four years ago with over 3,300 American deaths, over 25,000 Americans wounded, and an expenditure of over half a trillion dollars.

This is the United States.? The world’s only super power? (Don’t tell China that.) The democracy that is reported to be a light of freedom to the rest of the world? The country that so much of the world looks to for a solution of the Middle East crisis? The republic that put men on the moon? The country with the most modern weaponry in the world?

Who are we kidding? We are setting “bench marks,” asking a petty, long feuding, civil war wracked, backward, tiny country that can’t control its people, cannot organize a functioning government, that steals our aid money thru corrupt government officials, to decide for us how long we will keep troops in their country. We are putting into their hands the actual decision of how many more of our troops will die and be wounded, and how much more money we will sink into that money hole in the Middle East. This is how a super power acts? I repeat….who are we kidding?