At the end of the day, nearly all politics in Washington comes down to budgets. And this year, Bush is running into unexpectedly big trouble on the one he’s proposing.
I’m on the road a bit these days. Yesterday I drove from Charlottesville to Washington DC, where I had a delightful dinner and sleepover with some old friends… A fast and furious dinner discussion there– mainly global affairs, but with a little Washington politics thrown in. Today I’m in Philadelphia, where I’m attending a two-day workshop at a Quaker study center.
When I drive long distances is the main time I get to listen to a lot of radio. Here in the US all radio is broadcast locally, but many stations air content provided by either National Public Radio or the BBC (through PRI). Okay, not “many” as a proportion of the whole, since the airwaves are generally dominated by either evangelical-Christian stations or bland music stations controlled by the rightwing company “Clear Channel Communications”. But “many” as in, if you’re driving anywhere near a large city, you can usually find an NPR-based station somewhere down near the bottom end of the FM dial.
Yesterday afternoon I was listening to Congressman John Murtha (Dem., Pennsylvania) who waxed eloquent and angry about the plight of the US military as a result of the Bushies’ decision to invade Iraq.
- The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy wrapped in illusion….Our military is suffering. The future of our country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interest of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region
Murtha– who had supported the original war-permitting resolution in october 2002– called for a rapid pullout of US troops. In addition, as a decorated ex-serviceman, he forcefully defended himself against the accusations from Cheney etc that now was “not the time” to criticize administration policy, and that criticism would be harmful to the US troops currently deployed in Iraq. He was particularly scathing about Cheney– who, as he reminded us, had enjoyed no fewer than five deferments of his draft obligation in the Vietnam era, and managed thereby completely to evade military service, at a time that Murtha was in combat in Vietnam.
Murtha and other Democrats are now unabashedly starting to come out and use some version of the “we were actively misled– by you guys” argument that I’ve been suggesting for a while now would be the best way to counter arguments from the Bushies that, okay, all those Dems who’re now against the war, well, most of ’em voted FOR it back in 2002.
Excellent!
(This is, of course, exactly why the whole current series of investigations into how exactly the intel/information about WMD was manipulated by the administration in the run-up to the war has such great current political significance. It is NOT merely a matter for the historical record.)
Anyway, back to the evaporation of Bush’s mojo…. No, I don’t think this process has gone anywhere near far enough yet. Obviously, it has a long, long way further to go before, for example, we can see such concrete advances as a withdrawal of all US troops of Iraq…. a re-structuring of US relations with the UN… the constructive re-ordering of US relations with the whole of the rest of the world… solid commitments to restoring a social safety net at home… etc., etc.
But still, it is definitely starting.
That NYT article I linked to at the top had this lead:
- President Bush suffered a series of setbacks and rebukes on Capitol Hill on Thursday and early today as the Republican leadership was unable to push through some of his most cherished policy goals for his second term.
As the House and Senate struggled with spending and tax measures, two of Mr. Bush’s main objectives – oil-drilling in Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge and an extension of the deep cuts to taxes on capital gains and dividends – were shelved by opposition from Democrats and some moderate Republicans.
The defeats for the White House on the oil-drilling and tax-cut proposals came as Senate Democrats threatened to mount a filibuster against extension of the USA Patriot Act, which was enacted just after the Sept. 11 attacks and is a centerpiece of Mr. Bush’s antiterrorism policies. Democrats have been joined by several Republicans, some of them conservative, in contending that some parts of the act intrude too much on personal privacy in the name of national security.
Well, the erosion of Bushite power is way, way too late. But thank God it has started to happen.
As a footnote… When listening to both him and Cheney talking on the radio yesterday, they both sounded defensive– and very peevish. What a pair of babies.
got to wonder how many years (decades?) it will take to repair the damage….
Congressman John Murtha
Talk by Murtha not reported in the news ,
[Murtha]: Now, let me personalize this thing for you. I go out to the hospitals every week. One of my first visits — two young women. One was 22 or 23, had two children; lost her husband. One was 19. And they both went out to the hospitals to tell the people out there how happy they should be to be alive. In other words, they were reaching out because they felt their husbands had done their duty, but they wanted to tell them that they were so fortunate, even though they were wounded, to be alive.
I have a young fellow in my district who was blinded and he lost his foot. And they did everything they could for him at Walter Reed, then they sent him home.
His father was in jail; he had nobody at home — imagine this: young kid that age — 22, 23 years old — goes home to nobody. V.A. did everything they could do to help him.
He was reaching out, so they sent him — to make sure that he was blind, they sent him to John Hopkins. John Hopkins started to send him bills. Then the collection agency started sending bills.
Well, when I found out about it, you could imagine they stopped the collection agency and Walter Reed finally paid the bills. But imagine a young person being blinded, without a foot, and he’s getting bills from a collection agency.
I saw a young soldier who lost two legs and an arm.
: His dad was pushing him around.
I go to the mental ward. You know what they say to me? They’ve got battle fatigue. You know what they say? “We don’t get nothing. We get nothing. We’re just as bruised, just as injured as everybody else, but we don’t even get a Purple Heart. We get nothing. We get shunted aside. We get looked at as if there’s something wrong with us.”
I saw a young woman from Notre Dame, basketball player, right- handed; lost her right hand. You know what she’s worried about? She’s worried about her husband, because he lost weight worrying about her.
These are great people. These soldiers and people who are serving, they’re marvelous people.
I saw a Seabee lying there with three children. His mother and his wife were there. And he was paralyzed from the neck down. There were 18 of them killed in this one mortar attack — and they were all crying because they knew what it would be like in the future.
I saw a Marine rub his boy’s hand. He was a Marine in Vietnam, and his son had just come back from Iraq. And he said he wanted his brother to come home, is what the father said, because the kid couldn’t speak. He was in a coma. Kept rubbing his hand.
He didn’t want to come home. I told the Marine Corps to get him home.
There’s one other kid lost both of his hands, blinded. I was praising him, saying how proud we were of him and how much we appreciate his service to the country. “Anything I can do for you?”
His mother said, “Get him a Purple Heart.”
I said, “What do you mean, get him a Purple Heart?”
He had been wounded in taking care of bomblets — these bomblets that they drop that they have to dismantle.
: And he had been wounded and lost both his hands. The kid behind him was killed.
His mother said, because they were friendly bomblets, they wouldn’t give him a Purple Heart.
I met with the commandant. I said, “If you don’t give him a Purple Heart, I’ll give him one of mine.” And they gave him a Purple Heart.
I’m attending a two-day workshop at a Quaker study center.
Yellow Ribbons Aren’t Enough
“In the 1960s, when the US was waging war with another foreign country, America’s youth demonstrated against the government’s position. With organizations such as Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), rallies and marches were
held in Washington, DC. To protest the US involvement in Vietnam, young people hosted
sit-ins in college campuses and burned the American flag and draft cards. These anti-war
activists voiced their disapproval of the war. The hippie movement captured the attention
of the American people with its slogan of peace, love and happiness along with the need
to question authority. The Vietnam War was ended because of the peaceful and violent
demonstrations of the American youth, who were the same people being shipped off to
fight.”
I don’t think this country will ever recover its reputation.
What national figure will stand up and say we allowed our military to commit war crimes and use chemical weapons on civilians and we are very sorry and apologize to the citizens of Iraq?
NO ONE! AND IF ANYONE HAS THE ETHICS AND MORALITY TO DO THIS HE OR SHE WOULD BE CRUZIFIED FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES BY THE AMERICAN PUBLIC.
There is no one left in this country that can try to present this country in order to try to recover our reputation. In any case it would take a very, very long time.
We have arrived at a point were we are morally and ethically bankrupt.
If you disagree with this please show me the magority of this country that was outraged at the behavior of our administration and military.
I DO NOT SEE IT!
Disgusted, what you must do is to go out and lead people and get that majority. You are right to point out that it is not automatically there.
There are some good ideas for a way forward at http://www.counterpunch.org/walsh11172005.html
PARTNERS FOR PEACE
Together, we work for Peace and the protection of Civil Liberties.
Bush says Iraq on track
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BAK938368.htm
The reason there is no effective anti-war movement in the U.S. is that not very many people really feel like they have “skin in the game,” as the saying goes. Opposition to the Vietnam war was fueled by the draft. The movement only picked up steam after it started to sink in with lots of middle-class kids and their parents that their 18th birthday present might be an M-16 and a one-way ticket to Southeast Asia.
That’s why there hasn’t been any serious talk about restarting the draft for the Iraq war. It isn’t that they don’t need the troops, or that they don’t want to compromise the “professionalism” of the all-volunteer army. It’s no big deal to turn conscripts into professional killers – they’ve known how to do that for centuries. The reason is that the public would immediately demand an end to the war.
It looks like this war is going to end not as the result of any political pressure, but as a result of the volunteer military’s inability to keep fighting it. Of course, that will only mean the end of ground combat involving regular army and marine forces. I would expect the air war, and the covert war of special forces, CIA operatives and American “advisors” to continue indefinitely.
JC, you write “It’s no big deal to turn conscripts into professional killers”. In other words human agency can turn humans into killers.
On the other hand you don’t believe that another kind of human agency can turn citizens into activists for peace. The latter trick can only be performed by market forces, according to you, or in other words what you call “skin in the game”.
The net result is that you are saying that leadership can only work to the bad, and never to the good. People can only be led astray, and no other way.
Yours is a particular example of the general pos-modernism that says that free will is a delusion and that human actions are entirely determined by external, objective circumstances; and that any attempt to restore free will can only create a worse reaction and confusion.
This is anti-humanism pure and simple. I’m afraid you are part of the problem. You have no solution and you positively resist the idea of anything being done to curtail the institutionalisation of perpetual war.
I don’t know exactly how the builders of the peace movement are going to work around you and others like you, but that is what they must do.
“Yours is a particular example of the general pos-modernism that says that free will is a delusion . . . This is anti-humanism pure and simple.”
Golly, Dominic. That was an extraordinary burst of vitriol. I am rather astounded that you could reach such fatalistic conclusions about me from a few brief comments concerning the draft. I would think you were just trying to provoke another debate, but for the absence of your characteristic humor. Did somebody shoot your dog, or what?
JC, I had just made a post in response to “disgusted”, who was writing that everything is lost. I was trying to encourage that person (and anybody else) to build a peace movemnet, and giving a link to Counterpunch where there is a good article about how it can be done.
I deliberately didn’t write anything at that stage to the effect that the reason that you dolts haven’t got a peace movement is not fate, but your own laziness.
Then along you come with another dose of the same fatalism. Why can’t you have the benefit of the doubt, you now seem to ask, and be treated with gentle good humour?
It’s partly because you over-rode my previous post without noticing it. And it is also because there are fallacies in what you have written. These could be unpacked one by one without any effect your essential statement. In other words you have defended yourself with what in anti-fire design is called “redundancy”.
The only way to deal with that is to go straight for the main problem, which is just that you are saying that the warmongers can organise for war, but we the people cannot organise for peace.
Why the hell not?
There’s no way to make this point softly. Even Jesus Christ lost his temper at least once, and that was only with a bunch of “financial services” touts.
To be honest, Bush was speaking the truth for once, or at least a half-truth, when he said that someone who was not with him was against him. The full truth is that if you are not active for peace you are with Bush and the warmongers. That’s what it’s all come down to.
That is demonstrated in detail in your argument, which as I pointed out is based on anti-human post-modernism, just the same as Bush’s arguments are.
You have to come back and start believing in people, JC. You and “disgusted” and millions like you have to get out of the self-defeating “TINA” frame of mind. Do you remember “TINA”? It’s supposed to mean “there is no alternative”, and it’s a lie.
Let’s cool the athmosphere by some fun : you can all contribute to Bush’s endless fall here. Just click and drag with your mouse when he gets stopped by the spheres.
Well Dominic, you and Jesus can get mad at whoever you want. I engage in more than one type of intellectual activity – sometimes I am seeking to persuade others; sometimes I am just trying to analyze the situation. My earlier post was an example of the latter (and I stand by every word of it). On the same day, I wrote another of many letters to the editor of our metro newspaper criticizing their weak-kneed failure to call for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. That was an example of the former.
I admire your intellect and revolutionary zeal, but we do not all approach problems in the same way. Let’s not turn on each other before our common enemy has left the field.
And Christiane – thanks for the link! That’s a blast!
There is an interesting discussion of Murtha’s resolution at Juan Cole’s blog
But I think that Juan Cole is stretching Murtha’s words when he pretends that his resolution is similar to the exit scenario he proposed a while ago. I tried to sent these comments but they didn’t make through his comment section :
IMO, you are somewhat twisting Murtha’s words to make them fit with your own proposal, or at least, you are stretching his words too far. There are many differences between your former position and that of Murtha’s.
1) He doesn’t call only for the withdrawal of ground troops, but of a complete withdrawal of all troops
2) Accordingly, his quick reaction force should be located in the region, aka in a nearby country which is quite different than having air forces in Iraq.
Like all subtle politicians, Murtha uses some polisemic terms, so theare is room for interpretation, I grant it. But when you write that “”Praticability” would involve considerations such as not having Iraq collapse altogether”, you are stretching his words. Such a condition could authorize the withdrawal/redeployement of US troops to last for years, smearing the difference between Murtha’s position and that of the government. “The earliest practicabel date” can also be interpreted as the timelapse needed to move as many 160000 troops securely. Then we are talking about months.. not years, which seems more in line with the actual American opinion.
A quick reaction force and over-the-horizon presence sounds also ambiguous: is Murtha talking of an airforce presence or also of something else (he is including the marines) and of what size? And then, what would be the mission of this quick reaction force ? It’s not clear from the discussion yet. But if this force is stationned in a nearby country, it could be restrained to little more than a squadra of helicopters ready to fly the members of the Iraqi puppet governement and the wealth of US diplomatic counselors and advisers out of Iraq into safer ground, should the diplomatic road fail and things turn out bad for them.
To sum up, I think that Murtha’s proposal is much more radical than yours which I didn’t understand at the time because your aim to control the guerilla by air power can only only result in a bloodbath for civilians.
You are then going further, writing that “The argument, in short, is not about the preconditions for withdrawal but about its exact shape and rate.” OH.. my god, you’ll end speaking like the Bush government. You are trapped to do so, as long as you think that the US troops can only withdraw when Iraq is stabilized. The reality is that they are actually doing more harm than good, so the earlier they leave completely, the better for everyone.
I saw that Juan Cole stuff too, Christiane, and I couldn’t understand why he was doing that. I mean saying that Murtha’s idea was the same as his one in August (which Cole got lambasted for).
Who does Juan Cole think he is? He’s just a bloomin’ blogger, for heaven’s sake. Murtha is an elected representative.
I keep thinking of how I reared up on John C. Maybe this example of Juan Cole can explain it to some extent. Whenever it appears that there is something reliable and useful coming up in the peace movement in the USA, it so often flips over into its opposite. I have begun to get nervous about it.
I used to think that Juan Cole could be relied upon for a rational, liberal view but then he suddenly came up with an idea that corresponds to the policy of Winston Churchill and Bomber Harris in Iraq between the two world wars. This is like your favourite uncle turning out to be a child molester.
Murtha’s idea is to have a quick reaction force “over the horizon” which is bad, but not as bad as Cole’s idea of controlling Iraq politically from the air.
I’m tired, and listening to some great live jazz-bass while I write this. What an idiot! I know, I should just be sitting here and enjoying the music.
Anyway, I just wanted to check in and say hi to you all, because you feel eerily like old friends at this point and I love how you definitely don’t need me around any more to have a good conversation.
Christiane, I loved the “Bush falling” link, though after enjoying it for a minute or two I felt fairly absuive… having him squeeze thru tight spaces, etc… Then, i noticed it was only a game– none of what happened to him actually bruised or hurt him at all. Is this a metaphor for something or did I have one glass of wine too many?
Helena,
I just got that link in another discussion group. I took a look at the site hosting it and there were no further explanations. I have the feeling it wasn’t made by that guy, but who knows. I googled it and it seems to have got attention in many other forums, but it looks as if the original version has desappeared from the web.
I took it like a metaphore of Bush recent polls results. I was impressed by the talent of those who made that little game : whatever succeeds, Bush can never look good; try to make him stand on a sphere you almost can’t he will always fall. When he is facing down and stopped, it’s as if he was sobbing.
Concerning the fact that he never got bruised, now that you say it, there is also something of Bush’s stubbornness in this endless fall : nothing change in his attitude.
Yes, you are right, that there is something cruel in this game, so may be it wasn’t the right place to post it.
Repairing the damage, how? One of the main reasons, actual reasons for the war was/is to deplete our national budget;”strategic deficits”! This is part of the United States’ “Structural Adjustment”. Plan “B” calls for chaos. The pres requested China devalue its currency…to open up to greater foreign investment. All of these ideas and actions are of the same clothe. So realize that our domestic policy today has its roots in the W.H. distorting the intel leading up to its ‘republican’ war in Iraq. “Oil” is only the subtext here.
John Mueller, a political science professor at Ohio State, has an interesting article in Foreign Affairs regarding the “Iraq Syndrome.”
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20051101faessay84605-p0/john-mueller/the-iraq-syndrome.html
Dominic, if you think I’m too cynical, you gotta read THIS guy:
“Growing opposition to the war effort also has little to do with whether or not there is an active antiwar movement at home.
. . . In fact, since the Vietnam protest movement became so strongly associated with anti-American values and activities, it may ultimately have been somewhat counterproductive. . . .
Moreover, support for the war declines whether or not war opponents are able to come up with specific policy alternatives.”
J C, I never said you were cynical. Nor are you the same as this character you quote, who is only trying to demoralise the peace movement for his own reasons.
No, but I still have a problem with analysis separate from discussion, as you put it. There is no determined and determining set of facts that can’t be altered. Nor is it the case that free will can be exercised regardless of the facts.
Of course people’s interests are a powerful factor that can’t be ignored, but we can and must in these kinds of circumstances rise above the mechanical playing out of the “market”.
Helena once gave a good example of the Quaker anti-slavery activists of the 18th and 19th century who went from farm to farm persuading the farmers to act against their own immediate interest, and succeeeding!
This is what it is to be truly, really human, isn’t it? What other kind of life is worth living for us, the ones with the knowledge of good and evil? We are not sea-anenomes, to sit on a rock and sieve the passing currents. We are human beings!
Union for Reform Judaism, Representing 1.5 Million People,
Votes Against War in Iraq;
Resolution Calls for Exit Strategy and Specific Goals for Troop Withdrawal
I wonder if David one of them, I doubt it!!!!
My gut tells me that General Motors’ announced closing of 9 auto plants and layoff of 30,000 workers (and likely subsequent Chapter 11 filing) is going to be one of those “tipping points” we keep hearing about. It will deal an enormous psychological blow to a national economy that has been running on fumes for at least the past decade. It’s just hard to overstate the symbolic importance of this particular company going into its death spiral at this time, for all the reasons it is happening (rising health care costs, underfunded pension plans, foreign competition, executive mismanagement, uninspired product line, etc.). It signifies the end of the middle-class “American Dream.” Huge numbers of people who used to think they could buy a house and a car, send their kids to college, put a little money away and retire in reasonable comfort, are finally going have to face the fact that all of that is gone. I know that sounds incredibly self-absorbed to people from other countries, but the effects will be far-reaching. Anyway, it’s a sad thing.
Well, the erosion of Bushite power is way, way too late. But thank God it has started to happen
The sobering thing is that we have three years to go, during which we are nakedly exposed to contingent events in a dangerous world.