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The photo at left is a picture of Salwann Chmagh, the son of Saeed Chmagh, age 40. He was a driver for Reuters News Agency. He was killed this week in Iraq along with his colleague, Reuters photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, age 22.
A preliminary police report obtained by Reuters said Noor-Eldeen and Chmagh had been killed by a "random American bombardment" that had killed nine other people.
The US military said “The incident was under investigation...”
This week we learned more about such "incidents" with The Nation publishing The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness - a report prepared by our recent Book Salon guest, Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian. Based on interviews with “fifty combat veterans of the Iraq War from around the United States in an effort to investigate the effects of the four-year-old occupation on average Iraqi civilians” it “marks the first time so many on-the-record, named eyewitnesses from within the US military have been assembled in one place to openly corroborate these assertions” of what the authors call “disturbing patterns of behavior by American troops in Iraq.”
"I guess while I was there, the general attitude was, A dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi," said Spc. Jeff Englehart, 26, of Grand Junction, Colorado. Specialist Englehart served with the Third Brigade, First Infantry Division, in Baquba, about thirty-five miles northeast of Baghdad, for a year beginning in February 2004. "You know, so what?... The soldiers honestly thought we were trying to help the people and they were mad because it was almost like a betrayal. Like here we are trying to help you, here I am, you know, thousands of miles away from home and my family, and I have to be here for a year and work every day on these missions. Well, we're trying to help you and you just turn around and try to kill us."
He said it was only "when they get home, in dealing with veteran issues and meeting other veterans, it seems like the guilt really takes place, takes root, then."
And from the Guardian we have a short video that brings together the faces, voices and experiences of both Iraqi civilians and US soldiers. It’s the work of Sean Smith, a photographer who has been covering Iraq since the invasion. Smith was embedded for two months with US troops in Baghdad and Anbar on his most recent assignment.
Look closely at Salwann’s photo, look closely too at the portraits that accompany the Nation article and Smith’s video – and then tell me why we should stay one second more.
Photo by REUTERS/Mohammed Ameen (
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First!
Madness.
Iraq is a sink-hole, manufactured by BushCo and Halliburton. There will be no “winning” strategy except getting our troops out alive. The American public is finally figuring this out.
Bob in
HIWII was going to write about this article and this video on Saturday at Digby’s, but it was just so f’ing depressing I didn’t write a word on Saturday.
I couldn’t watch the whole video.
Dover Bitch @ 4
I wondered what had happened..I thought the re-fresh on my browser was acting up. Glad to see you are back in action.
How did we ever get into this. I am sick.
spurious @ 7
We got into this the way Americans always get in bad situations - by not paying attention. I think we always want to believe that everything is okay until something really bad happens and then we are stunned and say “how did this happen.” We MUST watch these people in DC very closely - including the Dems/
spurious @ 7
It happened because we were lied to.. and we on the far left were arrested and ignored while trying to get anyone to listen.
Twain @ 8
Exactly right..by not paying attention..This disaster has been in the works for at least 40 years. It’s like the story of cooking the frog. A slow change in the environment and the frog never reacts.
The President always talks about spreading Democracy like its a good thing to force people to live the way we do with a gun. Our solders go there with the best intentions and because they are ordered to, they get shot at by the people they are trying to help. People who quite honestly think that we are there to steal their oil.
On one of the Sunday newshows some talking head said in D.C especially in the White House there are still people who think we can win. They will blame the Democrats for losing this war if we pull out. Which is what our spinless Congress seems to be afraid of.
But after this war the Republicans will argue that we need Bush’s Tax Cuts more than we need to spend money on Medical and Mental healthcare for the troops. This “dead Iraqi is just another dead Iraqi ” quote is a cry for help. I wonder if anyone will ask the Republican Presidential Candidates which is more important Bush’s tax cuts or helping our troops?
Los Angeles Folks!
Bill Moyers Journal Impeachment repeat on KCET right now.
I want us to leave Iraq. And I demand accountability. I am weary of the killing fields.
Steve-AR @ 6, Thank you.
Impeachment, to be followed by war crimes tribunals.
Please?
demi @ 12
that was so worth seeing.
Twain @ 8
A lot of us were paying attention, and watched unbelieving as we were dragged into a war that didn’t make sense. We listened as democrats made speech after speech about how they didn’t want us to go to war, and then voted to authorize the war anyway. What most didn’t realize at the time was that they were arming a madman.
I posted this on an earlier thread but it fits here quite well:
Cpl. Trent D. Thomas faces murder charges after witnesses alleged he shot a 52-year-old Iraqi man.
Cpl. Saul H. Lopezromo testified Saturday at the murder trial of Cpl. Trent D. Thomas.
“We were told to crank up the violence level,” said Lopezromo, testifying for the defense.
When a juror asked for further explanation, Lopezromo said: “We beat people, sir.”
My bold. Here’s the AP story from CNN
The photo has seared itself into my heart. I considered not using it - it makes me heartbroken to see it just as the article and the video do. But I realized once again that we must look, we must listen, we must watch the whole video because this is real. It does not stop if we don’t look - and it does not get better for the people who live it. If we cannot stop this, we must at least bear witness to what is being done to our brothers and sisters in humanity.
Eureka Springs @ 9
Those who opposed the war from the beginning recognized the lies, propaganda and cheerleading and they were totally overwhelmed by a complicit media, the politicians, the Military industrial complex and redstaters bent on revenge at any price on anybody.
Viva SDS! Take it where it belongs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G54lfxiid_w
Hackworth - it was not only red-staters, it was Democrats who cared more about their approval ratings than the people of Iraq and the soldiers they sent to fight.
Look closely at Salwann’s photo, look closely too at the portraits that accompany the Nation article and Smith’s video – and then tell me why we should stay one second more.
Horrible. There is no reason we should stay one more second. None.
Twain @ 8
Good analysis but….
Now we need to do far more than just ‘watch’. It’s past time to demand action.
I’ve been in a bit of a spin since the Bill Moyer PBS broadcast the other night with guests John Nicols Wash DC editor for The Nation and Republician Bruce Fein, a constitution lawyer/scholar whom I believe served in the Reagan administration.
The one where both guests framed the subject of impeachment of Bush, Cheney & Gonzales as the CURE rather that the CAUSE OF our current and most chilling Constitutional crisis. If you missed it there is a good clip on Moyers web site of the most important excerpts of the broadcast.
So dear spurious and other firepups rest assured it will do wonders to watch a video that actually compells us to watch over and over again and spotlight repeatedly. We must do everything in our power to insist MSM widen the coverage and more importantly pressure Speaker Pelosi and everyone of our congresscritters to create agreement to impeach sooner than later.
For example, our Rep. Sam Farr signed on to Murtha’s impeachment plan the day after the Moyers broadcast appeared.
Speaker Pelosi needs to hear from each of us and our networks that we demand she lead impeachment not dodge it, and every Democrat in the House and Senate of both parties.
And if they keep dragging their cluby little feet I propose a national strike day where we all refuse to drive, shop or show up for work.
There are likely better links but the gist of the broadcast can be found here
http://www.pbs.org/media/wnet/moyers/journal/111
4/BMJ1114_impeachment1_480.mov
I haven’t mentioned anything bad about my party all day. Can that be called progress?
AP - Democrat Barack Obama ended the first half of the year with a formidable $34 million cash on hand for the presidential primary contest, while boosting his overall financial picture from April through June with a vigorous fundraising drive, the campaign said Sunday.
Money, money, money.
1,578 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen Spurious and the Firepup Patriots:
“How did we ever get into this. I am sick”
We got into this by followin the same evil forces and profiteers that have worked us into every imperial “police action” in our history since the sinkin of the battleship “Maine”. All of the key political players from Rumsfeld to Cheney and a cast of hundreds of political appointments in various strategic Departments and the federal judiciary go back to the Viet Nam War and the Nixon administration and/or represent families who have been profiteerin’ from investments in war, war-makin’ or slavery since at least the the 1850’s (see the Walkers and the Bushes and the descendants of President Pierce).
The only way out of this horrible situation is to get us out the same way we got out of Viet Nam - with hundreds of thousands (millions) in the streets all across the country especially in seats of encumbant Democtratic power. The Democrats will NOT act to end this occupation or stop the comin’ attack on Iran unless we scare the bastards into it…the Democrats must be forced to defend millions of their base while they are bein’ bludgeoned in the streets.
Move On and Democracy Now and the activist blogoshere must act as the organizers and coordinators of mass protests and general strikes across the country…folks with the blogophones and the power of the blog podiums hafta step up and help us organize. If we can’t mobilize the folks this summer, it won’t matter who is elected where in November of ‘08.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION…SOMEBODY’S GOTTA STEP UP!!
Siun @ 22
It has been easier and simpler to maintain Bush’s lies than to tell the truth. The truth is buried so deep that most of our democratic leaders prefer to support the lie. In order to tell the truth then, the dems needed to directly contradict Dubya. Very few people could have appreciated that truth so soon after nine elva. So they maintained the lie then and they continue to maintain it now.
It is difficult to contain my outrage as more and more of this information becomes available. I am absolutely horrified what has been done in our name to the people of Iraq, our military, their families, and our country. I can no longer look at an American flag without experiencing anger and shame that our patriotism has been twisted into an excuse or cover for these unspeakable acts of inhumanity.
Maliki has said we can leave whenever we want, as long as we provide guns and training. Well, we’ve trained the Iraqi police during the day so they can use the weapons and training we have provided to go out and kill their countrymen at night, and are AOL when our troops need back-up, so as far as I am concerned we’ve done more damage by arming and training them. The Iraqi people want us gone, the government, stuffed with thugs who are just waiting for us to leave so they can finish the ethnic cleansing, want us gone. If I thought we could help the people of Iraq I might think a peacekeeping force a good idea, but we are just dragging this out and making it worse all around. If we leave, the Saudis and Iran will have to step in and back the factions they support. Let them. They are doing it now and watching us bleed white into the sand and laughing at us.
The only thing keeping us there is greed and a desire to control that oil. I’m sick to death of hearing other excuses. They are all lies, just like the lies that got us to invade in the first place.
Where are our leaders? Why are we not planning a coordinated march all across America? Everyone who wants to end the occupation, everyone who wants impeachment, and hell, let’s invite the immigrants. Why wasn’t this done on the 4th of July?
Where are the leaders? Will I meet them at YK2?
Every member of congress should receive a copy
of this video with an enlarged copy for Harry Reid.
If the Cpl Trent Thomas Court Martial were broadcast live on CSPAN, we would have “real” Reality TV. We would see what we are asking our soldiers to do every day in our name. It is shameful, and our citizens need to recognize it.
Loo Hoo. @ 30
Loo Hoo, You are a leader.
The impression here is that the ‘truth’ has been laid bare for several years. And a majority of Americans are now seeing the truth about Iraq. Finally.
Soccer mom’s. There is something more important and vital than soccer. Your children’s lives may very well hang in the balance.
Suin - Thank you. The video is hard to watch but even harder for the Iraqis and our military. I can close down my computer and watch TV to calm down. They can’t.
Yes, every policy maker who agrees with this heinous war policy should be required to go to the far front of the battle and stay until the job is done.
For those who believe in this war, put your body where your mouth is.
Bring our troops home, now!!!
There are no winners in war. War is lose-lose.
hackworth @ 33
I can sure help here in San Diego County, but I need someone to tell me a time and date. It has to be in every major city in America. We need a song. We need a color. We need bumper sticker coordinated message. I want every major newspaper in the world to show colored pictures of Americans who are as mad as hell at their government, and particularly our co-presidents.
Oklahoma kiddo @ 34
This entire thing was very carefully planned and, to be truthful, it was really quite brilliant. The gov’t made sure that the American people were really never emotionally involved, told us to go shopping, and everyone just went on with the daily lives - except those families who were contributing kids to go and fight. I have never in my long life the citizens of this country so uninvolved in a war. They just assured the country that everything was being taken care. There, there, don’t you fret.
Liars and thieves.
pierce aero @ 32
If the Cpl Trent Thomas Court Martial were broadcast live on CSPAN, we would have “real” Reality TV. We would see what we are asking our soldiers to do every day in our name. It is shameful, and our citizens need to recognize it.
Bill Moyers: “Those of us in public television have an obligation to make that viewers like you stay in the loop. I wish we’d carried the congressional debate (on Iraq) this week - in full - all of it, in prime time. When we broadcast teach-ins on the Vietnam War, and the Watergate Hearings, during the trial of Richard Nixon, it was a real public service. We should keep Iraq in prime time, every week. The fighting, the dying - the suffering and the debate; the politics, the extraordinary costs. It’s months until September, and this war is killing us now. Body - and soul.”
(from the Moyers’ Journal this week featuring Bruce Fein and John Nichols).
SteveNS @ 15
Here! Here!
I M P E A C H ! ! !
jayt @ 39
Bill Moyers: “Those of us in public television have an obligation to make that viewers like you stay in the loop. I wish we’d carried the congressional debate (on Iraq) this week - in full - all of it, in prime time. When we broadcast teach-ins on the Vietnam War, and the Watergate Hearings, during the trial of Richard Nixon, it was a real public service. We should keep Iraq in prime time, every week. The fighting, the dying - the suffering and the debate; the politics, the extraordinary costs. It’s months until September, and this war is killing us now. Body - and soul.”
(from the Moyers’ Journal this week featuring Bruce Fein and John Nichols).
That was a powerful closing statement!!!
Oklahoma kiddo @ 34
Re: the Democratic Presidential Candidates - the political price for telling the truth is too costly. Dubya’s WOT is a waste of lives and money and it has produced the exact opposite of its stated goals.
“…it was not only red-staters, it was Democrats who cared more about their approval ratings than the people of Iraq and the soldiers they sent to fight.”
;0)
hackworth @ 42
Yes.
Siun @ 19
The photo has seared itself into my heart. I considered not using it - it makes me heartbroken to see it just as the article and the video do. But I realized once again that we must look, we must listen, we must watch the whole video because this is real. It does not stop if we don’t look - and it does not get better for the people who live it. If we cannot stop this, we must at least bear witness to what is being done to our brothers and sisters in humanity.
Thank you, Siun.
Bill Moyers has more than done his part. If they try to shut him down this time, WE must stand with him in great numbers.
An FYI I wacth a little thing called “Alive in Baghdad” I don’t know if its available in Itunes I use a player called Democracy. The program is produced by Iraq’s and parts sometimes found on TPM’s web site. Sorrow, anger and hope all rolled into one. And I think this is being done in my name and my heart screams no more.
argosfalcon @ 47
Have a link?
edit.. I found one, http://www.aliveinbaghdad.org/
Bush suddenly likes his veto pen. Look at what he will veto:
http://thenexthurrah.typepad.c.....s-and.html
The Children’s Health Insurance Program bill makes 17. What else is on the block?
1. The College Cost Reduction Act - H.R. 2669
2. Homeland Security Appropriations - H.R. 2638
3. State-Foreign Operations Appropriations - H.R. 2764
4. Interior-Environment Appropriations - H.R. 2643
5. The Energy Price Gouging Act – H.R. 1252
6. The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels (NOPEC) Act - H.R. 2264
7. FY 2008 Defense Authorization Bill - H.R. 1585
8. FY 2008 Homeland Security Authorization - H.R. 1684
9. Hate Crimes Prevention Act – H.R. 1592
10. D.C. Voting Rights Act – H.R. 1905
11. Rail and Mass Transit Security Act - H.R. 1401
12. Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007 - H.R. 1255
13. Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007 - H.R. 985
14. Reauthorizing Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund - H.R. 720
15. Employee Free Choice Act - H.R. 800
16. Requiring Medicare to Negotiate Lower Prescription Drug Prices - H.R. 4
[Note: This — the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act — makes 18. For more on which, see the very last link, below.]
1,578 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen oklahoma kiddo and the Firepup Patriots:
“Soccer mom’s(sic). There is something more important and vital than soccer. Your children’s lives may very well hang in the balance.”
Yes indeed, brother kiddo, but the soccer moms and the unregenerate hippies and the broken down Nam vets and the youngsters today need organizers and map readers who have expertise in the new technology in order to bring us together for direct action. The Pachacutecs and Jane Hamshers and Christy Hardin Smiths and the Digbys et al and the folks at Move On and Democracy for Amerika etc need to step up… if we don’t experience the power of direct action this summer we will lose the means to effect any political change for ever short of insurrection.
Here the link www.aliveinbaghdad.org
Here’s a link to Alive in Baghdad - I haven’t seen it yet but it’s available in many formats.
Attention Congress:
STAYING IS NOT LEAVING
Thank you.
QuakerGirl @ 46
Are these programs available somewhere on the web? I’m not tv-oriented and have missed most of them.
TeddySanFran @ 53
Doing nothing is not an option (get your head out of your focus groups and do something).
Loo Hoo. @ 49
One party rule.
Democratic Party radio response to Bush from Brandon Freidman
spurious @ 54
Go to Bill Moyers Journal
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html
spurious @ 54
here
Am watching the repeat of MTP. Lindsay Graham is frightening. I beginning to wonder if Rove/Cheney has something “on” him. He can’t be this dumb.
Hearing him say that the Senate voted unanimously last week that we are “in a proxy war with Iran” is chilling — right from their playbook.
NorskeFlamethrower…
…;0)
Jane(NYC) - I hadn’t seen MTP … thanks for the info on Graham. That certainly underlines the importance so many of us put on that Amendment vote and should remind us why we need to watch even each little step they make.
add:
Khalid W. Hassan, New York Times reporter
Assassinated near Baghdad yesterday
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/82823.html
134 journalists killed in Iraq since start of war.
Thanks, QuakerGirl and realworld.
The surest manner in which to stop the madness is to Impeach Shrub/Deadeye! What part of the process wouldn’t be a MSM bonanza? It’s a sure fire goldmine for the MSM, subsequently, one would think they would be more receptive to the idea!!!
Jane at 60, I’m starting to believe that Cheney has something on nearly everyone which is why no one has the guts to act against him.
The best of outcomes likely entails the Iraqis and Iraqs sovereign government requesting a near date American complete pull out from Iraq.
There really is no point for Americans to stay on and continue the carnage,ineptness and plain brutal ignorance that many Iraqis surely must associate with an ongoing daily American presence in Iraq.
The US Congress wont do it based on what is right ethically or morally.Just is not going to happen when evidence of 97-0 votes for more ME conflict ramp-ups are being tallied.
The Bush/Cheney regime? Expecting them to do what is right,moral,ethical or non-warmongering in nature is a fools quest.
Iraq will have to request…demand…the USA leave Iraq. It may lead to more deathdealing and mayhem but that is for the Iraqis to work out or find ways around. Not the Americans…we have demonstrated our failure well enough repeatedly these past four years plus in Iraq. Our record is fully one of shortfall,ineptness and profound ignorance and heedless conduct in Iraq. It is time for us to leave Iraq to the Iraqis. We have failed to show we indeed are the agents of good in Iraq.
Expect similar photos coming out of Iran when the ignorant,warmonger Americans attack Iran.
The Iraqis are seeing every day how “benevolent” we Americans are.
The imperial Americans are fast becoming very Hitlerian in methods and dark thinking these days in the greater ME.
American conduct in Iraq and towards Iran and surely the pathetic American WestBank/Gazan view of aiding Israeli brutality and expungement of Arab Palestine are all indicative of a deep run of sickness in American ME thinking/acting and American failed accountablility on ethics,moral conduct and being on the right side of human events in ME.
The Americans are not the good guys in ME these days.
The photo above spells that out plainly enough.
Loo Hoo. @ 49
We need a post or two to discuss this this is a lot of information and the implications of Bush killing all the hope in these bills is sad.
spurious @ 56
Chimpy will veto everything because anything that passes into law will look like Congress has done something and if that happens it will strengthen their position.
The only effort worth taking is the effort to impeach these fuckers. Hearings, then Impeachment, The a trial and then conviction!
We need to focus on Gonzales. If we could get them to impeach him, it would be a body blow to the boy king and tie up a whole bunch of resources in time and effort. I believe if we really pushed, the Dems might be able to get that started. They are simply NOT going to impeach Bush and Cheney right now - I wish.
Marretta @ 66
I agree. Every time the repubs in congress show any sign of independence at all, Cheney goes to the hill for a meeting, and suddenly they are all toeing the line.
Here’s another depressing thought.
Reparations.
Yep.
WHen the dust clears, our nation, on top of the untold cost of internal damages to our servicement and economy, will rightly be judged responsible for damages incurred duedirectly and indirectly to an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation.
realworld @ 69
Amen.
Iraq’s PM first said we could leave ant time, but his aide then said oops he mis-spoke hmmm. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....0715/iraq/
I was reading the Gorilla’s Guide and stumbled on a review of the Facing The “Dark Assessment
‘ posted by Scarecrow on July 13th. It is a very angry review. Not nice at all, but I think it should be heard. And not only here. This is the opening graph.
A constant theme here is that if you want to know what the Americans are really like and why we Irakis both despise and hate them is because of their unthinking racism. It screams from every sentence of that posting. Nowhere does the author pause even for a millisecond to reflect upon his country’s victims there is a quick mention a hasty bow in the direction of the American need to assuage their conscience and that is it. Here in Irak we view things differently.
Grilla’s Guide Scroll down past the first article.
Edit - Not that I think we at the Lake are racist, or deserve this rant, but it does apply to large numbers of thoughtless Americans.
Mack (I owe you multiple emails) - reparations is precisely right.
realworld @ 40
Impeachment isn’t needed to charge any or all of the administration under the 1996 war crimes law or for any of the hundreds of felonies they have committed. Cheney could be indicted tomorrow and there is nothing in the Constitution protecting the President from being charged. The fact that the DOJ and the Federal Judiciary has been subverted is a bit of a problem.
Unlike the Nixon and Watergate era, now the Republican Party is a criminal enterprise and not a political party. And unlike now, the Nixon WH didn’t control the MSM and the message. I don’t know what the answer is, maybe it is too late for answers, but impeachment isn’t the answer. In this environment, there is no chance Bush could be removed. The idea that the process will change minds, was operative in the ’60’s, it isn’t operative now. If the idea that the House and Senate can hire their own lawyers and bypass the DOJ is real, then they should do it and go to court. I think the “fix” is in but we need a Constitutional crisis and we need it quickly.
things come undone @ 68
As someone had earlier remarked that Moyers is certainly doing his best to shed light on this sordid affair, similarly, Kagro X is doing the same within the blogosphere!!!
sorry that should be “at” we should leave the ants out of this it’s our mess.
Lahoma says I may want to tell you good evening. And she’s right. As usual.
SeanPaul Kelly had a very important post over at the Agonist with a pdf of the memo George sent explaining what he would veto if it appeared in the DoD Authorization bill.
It is very telling - and a clear message of George’s intentions.
I agree, things come undone at 68.
argosfalcon @ 79
oh, I dunno, a few well placed fire ants could be useful.
What small amount of time I have watched CNN this weekend the Iraqi Prime Minister has been shown while telling Americans “We want you to leave, we just need a little weaponry and ammo, but you need to go now.”
Siun @ 64
They’ll be saying it over and over this summer to acclimate the shopping American people: “The Senate voted unanimously that we are in a proxy war with Iran.”
Then, when the war comes, people won’t be surprised. Everyone will say, “Weren’t we already?” and go shopping. September, before the Petraeus report is due, I bet.
mack @ 72
True. If only we could buy the loved ones who have been killed.
there’s a bigger picture that i wonder about-
all of the countries in the world, and NOT ONE is stepping up to call out bush…….i find that totally strange…….
we walked in and took over a country to control its oil, put in a friendly regime…..and to be able to camp out…….
why is noone doing anything about it? let alone, saying anything about it? i can think of a few reasons, but not strong enough ones.
no wonder he smirks.
i smirk because he still doesn’t have his oil bill, and iraq wants us to leave……….and it doesn’t look like their parliament is going to meet in the middle any time soon……the race is on…….will we get the deal before we have to pullout????? i don’t think so…….
Reminds us of another place on the planet that we made a huge mess of…
Thanks Siun for once again looking at this squarely and bravely.
Elliott @ 83
You just might be correct using the word “right” seems loaded now.
Senator Webb said something about a poll saying only 37% of the military support the war. But these people have a much greater stake in the war they are there. Whatever their postion on the war is they are a lot more polarized on this issue than us. If the GOP loses the military vote as hard as this is for me to believe but its what the numbers suggest.
Then we should see the red states change purple. They will elect moderate Democrats to end the war but still stay conservative. These military voters being more polarized and having more at stake personally are more likly to show up to vote.
The Bushies in contrast are demoralized by scandal and failure at war. They are less likly to show up to vote.
So in conculsion the redest states might be going purple next election. The moderate red states the pink ones might be the only ones still standing after the election.
Steve-AR @ 77
IANAL, but I don’t think you can indict a sitting president. To impeach is not to remove but to charge these b*stards with the high crimes they have commited, and only a majority of the house is needed. Whether or not the senate eventually convicts, this process will produce evidence and shine a light on the activities of these scum. Impeachment now is exactly what is needed.
Loo Hoo. @ 86
and the haunting ripple effect of each and every death… unfathomable.
mack @ 72
Not us Exxon Mobile
things come undone @ 90