Friday, July 06, 2007
Dying for the Commander in Chief
"I'm a war president. I make decisions here in the Oval Office in foreign-policy matters with war on my mind." (President Bush, Meet the Press, MSNBC News Feb.8,2004)
30 year old Army Sergeant David B. Parson died in Iraq on July 6, 2003, the first year of the war. The death toll then was 208. Now, in the 5th year of the president's war 13 American soldiers lost their lives in the first five days of July. The total as of July 5th: 3592 and climbing. Source: iCasualties.org
Our solders are dying -- every day -- in Iraq. Are they dying for their country or are they dying for a president who, according to even some of his staunchest supporters in the past, is not willing or able to face reality. The President, reportedly, does not pay attention to casualties reported in the press. Perhaps he doesn't. And he has avoided attending funeral services for soldiers. But the casualty figures cannot be buried, they cannot be shrugged off.
The president goes on selling his war. The smirk is no longer visible but he continues to play the "fear" card. In his July 4th speech the president compared the war in Iraq with the War of Independence!
Washington Post
Republican Senator Pete Domenici of New Mexico joined other senators who, in recent days, became critical of the president's war.The president goes on selling his war. The smirk is no longer visible but he continues to play the "fear" card. In his July 4th speech the president compared the war in Iraq with the War of Independence!
Washington Post
- MARTINSBURG, W.Va., July 4 -- President Bush warned Wednesday that the Iraq war "will require more patience, more courage and more sacrifice," as he appealed to a war-weary public for time and sought to link today's conflict to the storied battles that gave birth to the nation.
- In an Independence Day address before members of the National Guard and their families, the president again painted a dire portrait of the consequences of pulling out of Iraq, asserting as he has before that "terrorists and extremists" would try to strike inside the United States. - Washington Post
Washington Post
- "I have carefully studied the Iraq situation, and believe we cannot continue asking our troops to sacrifice indefinitely while the Iraqi government is not making measurable progress to move its country forward," Domenici said. "I do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq or a reduction in funding for our troops. But I do support a new strategy that will move our troops out of combat operations and on the path to coming home."
"Domenici's defection is the latest from a growing number of senior Senate Republicans who have decided to oppose the White House's preferred plan of waiting for a mid-September progress report on the effectiveness of Bush's "surge" plan of boosting the U.S. deployment in Iraq this year by tens of thousands of troops. Rather than wait for that report, to be drafted by the administration, Domenici and other senior Republicans have called for a change in course this summer in advance of the coming legislative fight this month in the Senate on the authorization bill for the Pentagon. "I am unwilling to continue our current strategy," Domenici said flatly, blaming the Iraqi government for its inability to get its internal administration in order. Early last week Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), the leading Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, delivered a rebuke to the White House with a more than 5,000-word address on the Senate floor declaring that the surge was not working and that the "current path" on Iraq was not acceptable. Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, applauded Lugar's speech and said he would offer his own amendments calling for a change in policy during the defense authorization debate next week. |
