How did this shoddy piece of shallow-journalism find its way onto Truthdig as it, elsewhere, provided a salient and scorching analysis by Dennis Kucinich of the betrayal of the very American people who elected a Democratic majority to end the occupation?

The only real plan proposed to end the war is H.R. 1234 (Kucinich), the salient points of which were posted by a Truthdig reader in response to the Kucinich critique.

The legislation that has now passed both the House and the Senate does no more than give lip service to ending the war as it enables to Bush regime to leave our troops in harm’s way, providing a $124 billion supplemental. (How much of that supplemental will go to Halliburton and mercenary firms like Blackwater is unclear).  While the House version purports to direct a withdrawal by Sept. 2008, Mr. Kucinich revealed on Democracy Now! (3/28/07) the separate 2008 budget that is presently scheduled to be passed, “contains another $145 billion for the war, and on top of that, they’re putting another $50 billion for the war in fiscal year 2009.”

In the last election America made its voice clear.  End this war, now!

Financially, we can’t NOT afford to spend the same amount every month, unless you want to
C R A S H
the almighty
“IN GOD WE TRUST”!

Inductive ~ Deductive Squared

cycle 10/08/08

“The president and his allies seem to want this fight. Yet insisting upon a confrontation will be another mistake in a long line of bad judgments about a conflict that grows more unpopular by the day."--

Another bad judgment call! Amen! Just leave the embeciles alone and watch them destroy themselves. I think the clueless quarter sense they are doomed; they are padding their own coffins.

Don Headley points out the most important thing here. The military-industrial complex; 9/11 was their “babyloca”, and Iraq is the prize. Soon the M-I Com. will want Saudi Arabia, maybe after Iran, maybe not. All the worst stuff will then happen: everybody’s nightmares will all come true. The fondest wishes of the death merchants all realized at once, the irradiation of the oil fields to boot, and nuclear winter the special reward in the box, straight from Battle Creek Michigan! Don’t even have to send in the boxtop! The coming of Jesus and his true buddy the 12th Imam, will be forgotten like so much chaff in the wind when we fly our helicopters with high speed cameras over the “new forbidden zone”, and look for a break in the relentless frozen howling gales that will envelope every continent and ocean. This makes us sound like lemmings, or something, that we would allow these people to be in charge who are so obviously viciously whacko and maybe even under alien influence…because who else will benefit from this suicide of the planet by human hands except…off planet, yes, outer space!...aliens! {¤¿ó} No humans will benefit. Read those Zecharia Sitchin books and get tuned in. The Middle East is alien turf; oil or no oil. Just like the Nazi’s were full of Occult scheisse, so too, we are finding, is the “New Paradigm Regime”. We must keep in our mind’s eye the NASA perspective to help us solve this conundrum… The Big Blue Planet. Perish through ignorance and aggression: “kill or die”; or live with intelligence and inclusiveness: “the open arms policy”. This was the one thing I liked about Ronny Rayguns, he wanted to unite us to fend for planet earth. Of course he was a nut job. He did planet earth no other favors. Perhaps this is a tipping point in our planetary history. It could be we are so insignificant that no matter how we act or what we do it’s nothing to the great churning powers of Gaia, but in another way of looking we are the lightening quick leap to planetary consciousness: The Noosphere. The mind happens through us, and we are in a fever of growth, and the deja’ vu’s are happening faster & faster, like a teenage consciousness, we’re too big for our britches, and we have to shed our irresponsibilities and seize hold of our wilding ways: Join the herd of living planets in the systems that help one another grow in the stellar jungle of limitless space: Our hurtling future and true destiny in an eleven dimensioned space time continuum. All for one, one for all. All Hail Eris.

Our Incompetent-in-chief needs an 8th grade civics lesson. He stated: “Now, some of them believe that by delaying funding for our troops, they can force me to accept restrictions on our commanders that I believe would make withdrawal and defeat more likely,” Mr. Bush said. “That’s not going to happen. If Congress fails to pass a bill to fund our troops on the front lines, the American people will know who to hold responsible.” Some one needs to point out the following: 1) This bill has no impact on whether or not defeat will occur; defeat has already happened.  2)Congress did, in fact, pass a bill funding troops, and it will, in fact, land on his desk shortly and 3) His veto of the bill will, in fact, mean he, the “President,” alone is responsible for no funding for the troops.

I am hoping that this move signals a movement finally towards the end of such a economically crippling war. The war will ends in terms of money because it was framed around the basis of acquiring more money. The genocide in Sudan would have been addressed had the Sudanese been starving upon fields of oil. Economically speaking however; we have failed to make up the difference in lives and cash. As a nation, who now needs to make up for a vast debt and needs to bolster its image, we should vote to focus our efforts on world poverty. The world’s poor according to the Borgen Project are the newest and least exploited emerging market. If we could cultivate this market, we could make money and help people. Keep in mind I am only framing this in economic terms because it seems that is how we as Americans vote.

“A defeat would have signaled House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s powerlessness...”

No, it is still a defeat because at the end of the day Bush will veto it and we will still have war and more bloodshed, mayhem, and ruined lives, both American and Iraqi. And if this can be considered any victory, it is only for the Democrats, not for ending this war, and the voters who put the Democrats in charge, and most of the people I speak to as I go door to door, recognize the difference.

They should be pushing for nothing less than revoking Bush’s authorization to attack Iraq, and not giving him any more money to do so.

And would the author and MoveOn like to wait out the remaining months if not years of debate and “agonizing votes” in Baghdad, inside or outside the “Green Zone”

And how do they know that this moment, with a bit more courage in Washington, could not have been the moment to actually end the war? Congress is still sending symbolic messages when it is they who have the sole Constitutional power to declare or not declare war, and the power of the purse.

And does the author even mention the “message” of Pelosi and the Democrats actually approving $124 billion in additional war spending? No. How many more will die as a result of that money? How many schools and hospitals can that money buy? Why are they further approving money that they don’t even have, putting us, our children, and grandchildren further into debt?

Dionne concludes, “a withdrawal that will happen someday...”

Someday. Well it’s nice to know the author has that much faith, and time to spare. I would argue that it is Congress’, not Bush’s, refusal to acknowledge that the country has fundamentally changed its mind on Iraq that is making any withdrawal possible. That is, of course, until a Democratic president gets to do it after ‘08, and that seems to be what this is really all about.

More simpleton ideas from the Washington COMPOST.

Is anybody else tired of this charade, you know, the “I support the troops”, BS?!

Obviously the Democrats do NOT acknowledge or even care about the urgency of this bill. The democrats made sure to let terrorists know the withdrawal date so all they have to do is mark their calendars and wait...not to mention the additional “pork” expenditures the dems have attached to this bill (in effort to BUY votes).

This is a bill that IS supposed to “support our troops” in a war zone!

Are you still under the impression that Bush is the ONLY one to blame for this war? Remember...both sides of Congress signed off on THIS war, a war started by terrorists.

The democrats are obviously motivated by greed and power with their focus solely upon the 2008 election.

We need to focus on what is needed, on what is necessary NOW for the future of OUR great country!

After Bush vetoes the bill,keep sending it back until there is no money to fight the war and he has no choice. No one else should die for any more lies. The future of our nation is at steak.

When Bush vetos this bill, expect a full court press from Karl Rove and crew excoriating the Dems for failing to ‘support’ the troops. And watch as Pelosi, faced with the defection of the “Blue Dog” Dems, reluctantly agrees to another supplemental appropriation bill minus benchmarks and an exit date, with the predictable lambasting of the dastardly Republicans, while telling her base that they’ve fought the good fight, and the only remedy left now to secure a Democratic victory in 2008

Meanwhile the carnage in Iraq continues.

Bush’s real victory here will not be just to fund the war until the end of his term - it will be to confirm that the Democratic leadership remains spineless as ever. The old adage, “you paid for it, you own it” now applies to the majority party in Congress. What a debacle.

Just disgusts me.  Instead of having a debate about war vs no war, we have a debate about how much to fund it.  The democrats has proven, to me, that they’re complicit in the crimes of this administration.  I’m happy that some, like Kucinich and Paul were brave enough to vote against more money for killing.

Why do you think that Pelosi took impeachment
off the table and only Repubs are beginning to
talk impeachment??? Dems don’t want to be stuck
with this bloody war!!! Repubs want to impeach
the little chimp so they can stick the Dems
with dealing with it...!  MFers can then gloss
over who STARTED IT!  Ain’t Democracy great??

I fail to see how the House vote, or even a Senate vote in favor, forces a constitutional showdown. Money will be appropriated, and even the most anti-Bush person (such as me) realizes that transfers authority to the Commander in Chief.

Using the power of the purse would have forced a constitutional challenge. The Democrats failed to do that. That Pelosi and other supposed “progressives” had to settle for this is telling about the pervasiveness of cowardice and corruption in both parties. That MoveOn had anything to do with it, and the way in which they gave cover, is despicable. Howard Zinn got it exactly right.

What will this bill actually do, as opposed from posturing? Any president, let alone this one, can claim that “facts on the ground” in 2008 require a shift, manufacture such facts if need be (Tonkin, e.g.), get another resolution, and basically pit the Congress against his PR machine. That’s all political, not constitutional. And it will likely work. These yahoos have already said again and again that they will not leave Iraq, period. They threw down the constitutional gauntlet, on this and a dozen other issues, countless times since 2001. No one has picked it up, and this bill doesn’t do jack to end this war or challenge this president or the precedent he’s set. Maybe the Democrats like the idea of those precedents.

We’ll likely be at war with Iran by then, anyway, and that hasn’t been touched on by Pelosi. Quite the contrary: language stating, tepidly, that the President has to (gasp!) come to Congress for a resolution (which he’d almost certainly get)—forget about the dead power to declare war, of course—was stripped out courtesy pressure by AIPAC, among others.

I have yet to see one good reason why this bill did or will do a thing to stop the war. I see it as a way to put the war on the Republicans in a bid for extended power in 2008. That end may not be a bad thing, though I don’t think any Democrat except Kucinich will do much of anything differently in foreign policy, but the means were appalling: thousands of Americans and Iraqis (and others) have to die in order for the goal to be achieved.

How progressive!

Bush looks more and more isolated as he sticks with his “put our troops first, not politics” rhetoric.  Everyday more and more people are realizing that an open ended commitment does not support the troops. 

Even Republican senators are ripping the administration for a commitment to the endless rhetoric, while rejecting some patriotic guilt trip to send more young men and women into a civil war.

“the president’s harsh rhetoric against the House version of the supplemental appropriations bill to finance the Iraq War may have been decisive in sealing Pelosi’s victory. “The vehemence with which the president opposed it made it clear to a lot of people that this was a change in direction and that it was significant,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Tom Matzzie, the Washington director of MoveOn, saw the Bush effect rallying his own anti-war membership. “Bush is our worst enemy,” Matzzie said, “and our best ally.”

It’s ironic that Tom Matzzie ssid what he did in the above excerpt from the subject article. I have been saying the same thing about the bu$h relationship with Usama Bin Laden. Bin Laden couldn’t have been given a better “Evil Satan” than the bu$h administration. bu$h says his “God” speaks to him, but it’s Bin Ladens “Allah” that seems to deliver the goods. As in “Please Allah, send me a morally weak, stupid and arrogant foe!”

Maybe Pelosi wins - politically - but the truth on the ground is that, no matter what happens militarily or politically, the U.S. military is going to occupy Iraq in perpetuity.  It is doubtful that even the 2008 elections will change that, no matter who is elected.  Those principled Democrats who naively call for the dismantling of the giant military bases in Iraq are laboring under the delusion that the military-industrial complex that Eisenhower so presciently warned us about 47 years ago will EVER allow that to happen.