The representative discourse on
This is Senator McCain’s position published by the Post on January 7: “The presence of additional coalition forces would allow the Iraqi government to do what it cannot accomplish today on its own – impose its rule throughout the country.” He says he knows accelerating the deployment of troops is a “terrible sacrifice” and the troops will be disappointed, but then, “ . . . they will shoulder their weapons and do everything they can to protect our country’s vital interests in
General Clark writes on January 8: “The truth is that the underlying problems are political, not military . . . Absent . . . fundamental change in Washington's approach, there is little hope that a troop surge and accompanying rhetoric will be anything other than "staying the course" more. That wastes lives and time, bolsters the terrorists and avoids facing up to the interrelated challenges posed by a region in crisis.”
Senator Kennedy gave a dramatic speech yesterday opposing the surge and placed a posting on DKos, which links Clark to Kennedy in stepping forth first on the issue. Kerry undoubtedly will follow with his Senate mate – indeed, Senator Kerry spoke up in general opposition to the McCain surge in a Washington Post essay on December 24. Gary Hart, one of the best minds in Democratic politics and consistent from the first on Iraq , has also posted a brilliant essay this morning at The Huntington Post.
But this is most important. The headline in today’s Washington Post reads: “With Iraq Speech, Bush to Pull Away From His Generals.”
“When President Bush goes before the American people tonight to outline his new strategy for
This is the new political matchup: Clark, Kerry, Kennedy and the Generals. And on the other hand: Bush, McCain, the neocons, 12 Republican Senators, the Christian Zionists and the Terry McAuliffe agency with its new Gray Champion, Hillary Clinton. Senator Clinton has supported and endorsed the invasion of
General Clark can now count on support from the Northeast and its traditional
Kerry has been encouraged by
If Senator Kerry declines to run for President in ‘08, he could well throw his support to Wesley Clark. In doing so, he would help bring the Northeast with him. Kerry admires General Clark, as could be seen in his speech at the Democratic Convention, which owed much to Wesley Clark. I believe he would have wanted General Clark as his VP, but
And I think now in particular Kerry has no love for the McAuliffe/Clinton camp, as McAuliffe will be running a regular dog and pony show promoting his new book in the next few months & publicly besmirching Kerry's reputation. (A “revealing and waggish memoir . . .” writes one pundit.) We Yanks hate that. Our trusty local
I'd like to see a solid veterans' Quaternary: Clark, Kerry, Jim Webb, John Murtha unite here - I know Webb says he hated Kerry's guts and wouldn't talk to him for 20 years, but he is a genuine individual and said in his Virginia primary campaign when asked if he still hated Kerry, that after 9/11 all his anger fell from him. As it should have all Americans. In this, Clark, Webb and John Murtha could help bring us in the Northeast into the American mainstream and help dissolve red state/blue state contention. In a way, the fate of the Northeast could lie today in Senator Kerry's hands.
But something else has happened here: Something vast. Today, for the first time in our American history, we have the potential for a revolt of the Generals; an actual coup d’etat.
We are now committed to the same path to failure which we took in
Among the best and brightest at the military command today there are vows by these honorable warriors never to let that happen again. Now it is happening again, and Bush is treating the volunteer Army and Marine Corps like peasants swooped up by the handful by Peter the Great, endlessly away from their families and loved ones and off to fight the Suleiman. But there is potential now and it is entirely possible that Bush today faces a revolt by military commanders.
In the last six years we have seen the failure of a Congress of Peeps in voting for a war resolution it knew to be a deception and even more so we have seen a complete failure of the press at the highest ranks. The press accommodated, appeased and enabled war fever and absolutely egged on the Dungeon & Dragons warriors in the Oval Office. We have seen the failure of the Supreme Court in propping up an illegal election. And most important, we have seen the failure of the American people who let this all come to pass with nothing more than an effete, deconstructivist pout.
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