Things For Which There Is No Excuse

no excuse for Rumsfeld's failures.
no excuse for Bu$h's failures.
no excuse for Cheney's failures.
no excuse for Rice's failures.
no excuse for any of them.
and yet, they continue to lie.

"War in the abstract can often seem like a good idea. Politicians get the patriotic blood flowing with their bombast and lies. But the flesh-and-blood reality of war is very different."

The Army's Hard Sell

By BOB HERBERT NYT June 27, 2005

The all-volunteer Army is not working. The problem with such an Army is that there are limited numbers of people who will freely choose to participate in an enterprise in which they may well be shot, blown up, burned to death or suffer some other excruciating fate.

The all-volunteer Army is fine in peacetime, and in military routs like the first gulf war. But when the troops are locked in a prolonged war that yields high casualties, and they look over their shoulders to see if reinforcements are coming from the general population, they find -as they're finding now - that no one is there.

Although it has been lowering standards, raising bonuses and all but begging on its knees, the Army hasn't reached its recruitment quota in months. There are always plenty of hawks in America. But the hawks want their wars fought with other people's children.

The problem now is that most Americans have had plenty of time to digest the images of people being blown up in Baghdad and mutilated in Fallujah, and they know that thousands of our troops are coming home in coffins, or without their arms, or without their legs, or paralyzed, or horribly burned.

War in the abstract can often seem like a good idea. Politicians get the patriotic blood flowing with their bombast and lies. But the flesh-and-blood reality of war is very different.

The war in Iraq was sold to the American public the way a cheap car salesman sells a lemon. Dick Cheney assured the nation that Americans in Iraq would be "greeted as liberators." Kenneth Adelman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board said the war would be a "cakewalk." And Donald Rumsfeld said on National Public Radio: "I can't say if the use of force would last five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that."

The hot-for-war crowd never mentioned young men and women being shipped back to their families deceased or maimed. Nor was there any suggestion that a broad swath of the population should share in the sacrifice.
snip~
What's not so wonderful is that this war with no end in sight is becoming an ever more divisive issue for Americans. A clear divide is developing between those who want to continue the present course and those who feel it's time to craft an exit strategy.

But with volunteers in extremely short supply, an even more emotional divide is occurring over the ways in which soldiers for this war are selected. Increasing numbers of Americans are recognizing the inherent unfairness of the all-volunteer force in a time of war. That emotional issue will become more heated as the war continues. And it is sure to resonate in the wars to come.

continue~
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/27/opinion/27herbert.html?pagewanted=print

Donald Rumsfeld said on National Public Radio: "I can't say if the use of force would last five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that."

Insurgency Could Last a Decade, Admits Rumsfeld
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1515527,00.html

------------
Who is next? (http://www.guardian.co.uk)

Hundreds Await Rehnquist at High Court

WASHINGTON (AP) - People camped out overnight to get seats for Monday's dramatic conclusion of the Supreme Court term.

Justices have a handful of cases to decide before taking a three-month break, including Ten Commandments appeals from Texas and Kentucky and a case that will determine the liability of Internet file-sharing services for clients' illegal swapping of songs and movies.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, 80, could also use the final day to announce his retirement, as some justices have done in the past. Most of the retirement speculation has focused on Rehnquist, who has cancer, and Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, 75.

Hundreds of people were in a line that snaked across the court plaza and down to the sidewalk. The first people arrived at 1 a.m. and brought blankets.
---------

Iran's New Leader to Pursue Nuclear Plans

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5101351,00.html

In French articles, this election of a "hardliner" instead of Rafsanjani is being called the "Iranian bomb" - not good for them or for us.
Was this a protest vote because of the Bush rhetoric & the ill-fated adventure in Iraq?

---US helicopter confirmed as crashed in Iraq - casualties unknown.

"And it is sure to resonate in the wars to come."

Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at June 27, 2005 09:06 AM

I don't know, OTV and Mr. Herbert. Last weekend we stood in front of the Vietnam Wall, and wondered, for perhaps the thousandth time, why we can never learn.

The sheer force of names, years, photos of children and grandchildren never known or seen by those young young people, the vast spread of the black marble across the landscape, like a scar cut into a green hill--all the reminders we need are there.

And yet, people who served there are as divided as the rest of the nation as to whether or not we should be in Iraq at all. We saw one Vietnam veteran there with an anti-Kerry pin and t-shirt. We saw a few "Bush lied, thousands died" t-shirts too. Lies, hidden truths, coverups, diversions--all a part of that time, and here we are again...

Every time I go to this sacred space, the uselessness of that war resonates within me. It does not appear to do so for many others. I have little hope that we have learned ANYTHING from the ten years of holy hell that was Vietnam.

And so today, we have Vietnam Redux. The shame is even worse this time, however.

The first time you go into rehab for drug abuse, so they say, you are a victim of the drugs. After you understand the how of the drug abuse cycle, you are a volunteer for sobriety. Any relapses after that do not get you the sympathy card. You are a hardcore addict.

We are, as a country, recalcitrant addicts, and abusers of the global trust.

Karen
good analogy - reminds me of a good picture book

http://www.addictedtowar.com/

So we are one billion dollars short for veterans, and there is over a billion dollars in unaccounted for billing from Halliburton/KBR...

Rick Santorum: "Rove doesn't speak for me."

http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2005/06/index.html#006895

LOL

Posted by: Beth C. at June 27, 2005 10:21 AM

=========
Actually, the amount considered "missing" from Iraq reconstruction funds is 8.8 Billion according to the General Accounting Office's last reckoning...

But hey, there's still time to lose more.

This morning on NPR I heard a correspondent from Baghdad explaining about the Iraqi deaths. She said that the suicide car bombs--500 of them since the Iraqi election--account for only 6 percent of deaths. Could that be right? Is it 60 percent?

The rest of the deaths are from revenge killings, killings over personal politics and personal histories. Assassinations, beheadings, etc. There is no security in Iraq at this personal level.

I think this is an incredible story that is not getting out. The American public knows nothing of this. I hope someone picks this up, but I fear that our media and public don't seem to care at all about what is becoming a massacre of Iraqi civilians.

New Jersey Senators and Reps go after Rove:

http://www.prospect.org/weblog/archives/2005/06/index.html#006894

good little blogatorial on Rove/Distraction, with some history of how Rove operates:

So what do Rove's rather unusual inflammatory statements accomplish? Distraction. The point here isn't whether the statements are true or false, or whether you agree or disagree with them. Chances are, no matter where on the political spectrum you stand, you're taking a break in your thinking about Bush's current job performance, whether the Downing Street memo is true or "old news", or even about the latest carnage in Iraq. Instead you're focused on a rather silly tangential issue of whether liberals are somehow a threat to America, or undermining the War on Terror, or whether liberalism is at risk for "irrelevance."

And again, this is nothing new for Rove, and it's a trap he's used time and time again. For example:

http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?sectionid=2&id=6356

Posted by: Karen at June 27, 2005 09:30 AM

Karen,
I think the Vietnam war era supplied troops via the draft, so the war hawks running the quagmire had a never-ending supply of young warm bodies, to kill & be killed, in the name of "patriotic duty". That enormous toll is starkly evident on that long black wall monument in DC.

Bu$h's Iraq war (and future wars?) have no draft.
Their supply of willing young bodies is still there, but running into deficit problems. There will always be some young people, for whatever reasons, who will join the army/marines in the name of "freedom isn't free".
That's the saddest thing about Bu$h's Iraq war. The war mongerers have wrapped themselves in the American flag so that if you criticize Bu$h-the war-president, you're critizing the flag, patriotism and the young troops who are dying for a war that is immoral and illegal and should never have happened.
John Kerry said we should never again confuse the war with the warrior. That is what was done in the Vietnam era. But that is exactly what Bu$hInc requires us to do again, and they have done a good job until this point, of portraying those who criticize Bu$h, as criticizing America= criticizing the troops.
We need to separate the two, the war and the warriors are not the same. For Bu$h to survive, he needs the country to buy into his slogan, "you're either with US or you're against us". That has worked well for Bu$hInc since 9-11. But the tide is turning. As John Kerry says, Americans do not have to confuse this war with the warriors. And that is the real lesson of Vietnam.
But there are still a lot of open wounds about Vietnam and Bu$hInc exploits that.
But the time has come when its not working as well as it once did, and that's why there are real shortages in current military recruitment.

Off topic but consider sending a message to Rep. Jones who is sponsoring a resolution asking Bush for a time table for troop withdrawl from Iraq. This is the same Rep. who coined freedom fries.

http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/?id=442&lvl=C&chamber=H

Major setback it seems on the religion in government front...SCOTUS just ruled the ten commandments CAN be displayed outside of a Texas courthouse (CNN)...a spokesman called it, "A victory for religious freedom"

Posted by: pcdoc at June 27, 2005 10:58 AM

====================

Well, Doc - it was kind of a split decision. Apparently they are going to judge the cases individually, instead of making a "one ruling covers all" judgement...

Texas can keep their 10 commandments statue on the grounds of the courthouse, but Kentucky cannot keep the framed commandments inside the courthouse...

There will probably be other rulings down the road.

Support the Eenver Three:

They contacted the Denver office of the Secret Service, where Ms. Weise said an agent, Mike Leskovar, was apologetic and told them that it should not have happened and that the man who ejected them was not a Secret Service agent at all. The Secret Service later told them and their lawyer, Ms. Weise said, that the sole reason they were thrown out was because of the bumper sticker, that they knew the name of the man who did it and that he was on the White House host committee. But the agency has refused to reveal his identity.

Last Friday, a Secret Service spokesman in Washington, Jim Mackin, would only say that "we have an open criminal investigation" and that he would have no further comment.

In the meantime, the Denver Three's exploits are chronicled almost daily in the Colorado press. They have a Web site and pass out bumper stickers, playing on Mr. Bush's plan to add private accounts to Social Security, that say "Don't Privatize My Freedom." During their trip to Washington, the cameras were rolling when they tried, unsuccessfully, to hand-deliver a letter to the White House demanding answers from Mr. Bush.

For some Colorado Republican officials, it is a bit much. "It's kind of becoming a political witch hunt," said Jordan Stoick, Mr. Beauprez's press secretary, in an interview after the three had left his office. But Mr. Stoick did say he was sympathetic.

"We don't believe this should have happened to them," he said. "If it had been a Beauprez event, it wouldn't have happened to them."

New subject...

About the Toledo Coingate. It seems there appears to be a split decision on who should get the funds fromm the sale of Mr. Noe's assets.

Apparently one side wants it split between: lawyers, restitution, and living expenses, and the other side wants it split between: lawyers and living expenses.

Personally, I believe the restitution is the highest priority and let the living expenses be low and let Mr. Noe spend his every last coin til his dying day paying his attorneys.

Victoria Ellen:

Santorum has not suddenly found Jesus. Ask tutter.
Santorum knows he needs to appeal to a sliver of the overwhelming Dems to have a chance next Nov.against Casey, that always seem to help him during election time. We can not allow that false political repostitioning every 6 years. I am sure he agrees 100% with Rove. But unlike his bud Hutchinson, Pa is an overwhelming Dem state unlike Texas. That is the only reason for his separation from Rove's comments.

Okay, according to the NPR correspondent, suicide car bombs are only FOUR percent of the deaths in Iraq over the past year. The other 96 percent: "tit-for-tat killing that has been going on in the neighborhood". As Deb Amos, NPR's Baghdad correspondent understates: "We don’t do a lot of detail on these killings but Iraqis know them very well."

DCP blog writers--please feel free to take this and make it a blog. Per my post above, I went back to listen to the NPR piece and I transcribed it. I think this is a huge story. ANd part of the sotry is that our media doesn't give rip about these deaths because they are Iraqis killing Iraqis.

Below is a link to the NPR audio stream, and then my transcript of this part of the story--it's near the last third of the 5 minute clip:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4719665

Renee Montagne: Tomorrow is the 1-year anniversary for Paul Bremmer and the Coalition Provisional Authority turning the administration of Iraq over to the Iraqis. What are most important changes in Iraq over the last year?

Deborah Amos: Renee I was here a year ago. And there have been quite a few changes. In particular, you have an elected government, that's a big change. The army is growing and so is the police force. However, the parliament meets in the Green Zone...Iraqi parliamentarians complain that they feel unsovereign as they walk in to the meeting place as they're patted down by American soldiers...there are other examples of "not sovereignty": there was no coordination between an operation in western Iraq. So you hear grumblings about what sovereignty actually means.

Renee Montagne: Yet car bombings are on the increase, Deb: nearly 500 since the handover.

Deborah Amos: If you look at the figures, about 4 percent of the deaths in Iraq in the last year are due to suicide car bombs. They are spectacular and they get a lot of attention. Much bigger problem here, Renee, is the tit-for-tat killing that has been going on in the neighborhood and it's between Sunnis and Shia. We don't do a lot of detail on these killings but Iraqis know them very well. They happen in neighborhoods. Bodies show up. They've been tortured. The next day there is a car bomb in the neighborhood where it happened. All of those are the most troubling signs of all, because if this goes on Iraq will slowly slide into a civil war.

Urge all of your friends to refuse contributions to HumanUSA (who is heavily contributing to Rick Santorum) and instead to sent their animal rights contributions to their local animal shelters.

Posted by: victoria ellen at June 27, 2005 11:11 AM

victoria, thanks for that correction, i was getting my news from CNN breaking news (my first problem) so i didnt catch the distinction ;) thanks for keepin me, and us all up to date! :)

Beth,

This is NOT news to those who have been reading BAGHDAD BURNING--or keeping up with Riverbend on her ongoing blog:

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

She has been writing about exactly this for two years.

I think the bigger concern is how to get the information (read: TRUTH) out to the masses here?

I do not see the mainstream media covering this--it is going to take a massive writing campaign to get them on it.

LTEs, op-eds, call-ins to talk shows, calls to TV and newspapers---

What should we focus on? Feel free to suggest courses of action!

Posted by: Ira at June 27, 2005 11:13 AM

Ira,

The Denver Three is the top of the Five Minutes A Day list on the front page of this website.

It took us a while, but we found their website, and they can use some support, for those interested:

http://www.denverthree.org/

See Bill Clinton & others

On July 13, more than 500 progressive students from college and university campuses across the country will gather in Washington, D.C., for the first annual Campus Progress National Student Conference.

A one-day crash course that explores progressive student leadership from an insider’s perspective, the Conference will feature a powerful schedule of skill-building workshops; effective advocacy and media training seminars; and panels and forums led by some of the top progressive newsmakers we’ve been talking about at
http://www.CampusProgress.org.

Also check out Center for American Progress site today - countering Rumsfeld's "damage control" attempts

Posted by: DiAnne at June 27, 2005 11:41 AM

DiAnne,

Many of our friends from the Princeton filibuster efforts will be at the Campus Progress event. Some GREAT leaders coming along there!

Karen
I was hoping!!

Locally, our grassroots group is having a potluck picnic & Lakoff book discussion.

I just could not resist posting this Mary Matelin diatribe from the Commonwealth Conservative blog site in Va. Its interesting how Republicans seem enamored in using the word Hate to rev up their troops regarding 'any' ideas or organizations that the disagree with including moveon.org. And the idea of Republicans whining about any organization that has raised a lot of money, usually in $10-$20 denominations from tens of thousands of members seems like the ultimate in hypocrisy. It sounds like this gang doesn't feel that anyone has a right to participate in the political system whatsoever unless they have an R by their names.
I met tons of moveon folks last November and I don't recall meeting anyone that could remotely be described as a hater, other than being intensely motivated to defeat Bush. Its amazing how folks on the right, friends of DeLay and Frist have the nerve to described anyone as a hater. Its also interesting that Madelin, the last time I checked who resided in Georgia or Alabama, seems to know what is best for the residents of Va. but no one else.

"Democrat special-interest groups will play a role in the outcome of the 2005 Virginia state elections, Republican Party strategist Mary Matalin said earlier this month.

“You’ll have to be prepared, because these groups don’t act on principle. They’re motivated by hate. And they have lots of money, and they have lots of workers, and they are very aggressive, and they are very mean, I have to say,” Matalin told GOP supporters at a teleconference rally held in honor of Republican Party gubernatorial nominee Jerry Kilgore.

“The good news is, as in ‘04, they don’t have any agenda. And as we saw in ‘04, and will see again, and are seeing in this race and the midterms and ‘08, you can’t run on nothing,” Matalin said. “You have to have something that the people will be for. And in this day and age in particular, you have to have the kind of honest reform, the kind of innovative programs, the kind of philosophically consistent, conservative, value-oriented framework for governing that Jerry has.”

Nevertheless, the Dems see Virginia as fertile ground in November and into the future, Matalin said.

“That’s why they’re here, the MoveOn people and others, and already entrenched. They’re not going to be acting on not what is best for Virginia, but what they think they can do to affect both the miderms and the ‘08 race,” Matalin said."

did I mention that they are not only haters with a lot of money but mean.

Posted by: Ira at June 27, 2005 03:01 PM

Ira,

It sounds like everybody in the administration got the same talking points memo from Rove, Mehlman and Bush

Ira

They're saying the Dems don't have an agenda - it's funny because the Republicans always have an agenda but Bush had no real programs when he ran, other than tax cuts for the rich & privatizing/stealing Social Security. Nothing substantive for health, education, environment or any other area.

Think your actions don't mean anything to help get the DSM investigated? Look at what is at risk!

http://www.asparrowshome.blogspot.com/

Ok guys and gals,

Are you feeling the rage yet? The pain? The horror? Well, isn't it time to write the media and get to business?
http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/mail/compose

Posted by: not my president at June 27, 2005 04:25 PM

I don't remember Bush having any programs when he ran. There was No Child Left Behind. Wait a minute, I didn't know that meant from being sent to fight his wars.