Freedom's Fire, Brightly Burning

(Okay, the "as usual" in my headline is editorial...not directly from Kerry...but easily inferred if you've been listening to him for a while!)

Earlier today at a press conference, Bush made the claim that

[These are] challenging times and they're difficult times and they're straining the psyche of our country..." Bush said.

No shit these aren't joyous times. But why is that, George?

I remember in the Clinton years - as much as I winced over policies like NAFTA and a much too slow approach to the oncoming freight train of global environmental disaster - I woke up each day (mostly) thinking the world was, on the whole, becoming a better place for most people, little by little.

We're a far, far sight from that optimism now, and as much as the Bushies try to point the finger at Clinton, it's getting a little old - they've had five and a half years to turn the ship around - if indeed it was Clinton that set it on the wrong course, which I doubt - and they've proven themselves utterly incompetent to the task.

Meanwhile, the incompetence goes on, as Bush states with regard to withdrawal of forces from Iraq:

We're not leaving so long as I'm the president. That would be a huge mistake.

Mistake for who? The war profiteers?

As Kerry says in a statement I received in my email, which is also covered at Raw Story and The Democratic Daily:

“President Bush is profoundly wrong about Iraq, and profoundly wrong about the American people. Today President Bush said America’s “psyche” has been “strained” by “challenging times.” Americans are a strong people. The American psyche isn’t the problem. The problem is this Administration’s disastrous Iraq policy.

Bingo. That "stay the course" Iraq non-policy that Bush intends to stay on for another two and a half years. That policy that has resulted in an ineffective government in Iraq, unable to protect its citizenry at all, in a budding civil war. Whole towns where even under Saddam's repression, a woman was treated as a human being, have now been taken over by radical patriarchists who treat women as property. (You call that "freedom" George?? Freedom for whom?)

Kerry goes on, talking about what is really "strained" and why:

Our military has been strained by the Rumsfeld policy of going to war with too few troops, sending troops into battle with inadequate body armor, and overextending the National Guard. Faith in this Administration has been strained by exaggerations and miscalculations from the promise of “mission accomplished” to Vice President Cheney’s declaration of an insurgency “in its last throes.” Patience is strained because almost five years later, Osama Bin Laden is still on the loose, and gone is the promise of ‘wanted dead or alive.’ The Administration’s credibility is strained because the President’s mantra that “U.S. troops will stand down as Iraqis stand up” is another misleading myth, and “stay the course” is a recipe for disaster when the course is broken. Budgets are strained by record deficits, while critical needs, from homeland security to Katrina rebuilding go unaddressed while each week we spend two billion dollars in Iraq.

Well, I have to disagree with Kerry on one part of that - the Administration's credibility is not strained. It's nonexistent, and has been for awhile.

Otherwise, not bad. Kerry on...(now he calls a civil war a civil war. Good job. 'Bout time someone noticed.)

This Administration’s Iraq policy has been an unmitigated disaster and has set us back in the War on Terror. Iran is profiting because the United States is bogged down in Iraq. Our troops are stuck in a civil war. The violence is worse than ever. 100 Iraqi civilians are being killed every day in a brutal civil war that Administration still denies, and it’s getting worse every month. Over 9,000 Iraqis have died in the last three months alone. Since the bombing in Samarra, 182,000 Iraqis have fled their homes due to sectarian violence and intimidation. IED attacks against American troops have nearly doubled since January.

And finally Kerry reminds us, contrary to the right-wing and M$M spin, he doesn't just criticize the current policy, but has concrete proposals for an alternative course of action (aka a "plan", for those who like that word):

We must change course in Iraq. We need to set a date to force Iraqis to stand up for Iraq, force the Administration to finally do the diplomacy necessary to find the political solution our generals say is needed, move American troops to an over the horizon position, and refocus the United States on waging and winning an effective War on Terror.”

Yeah, diplomacy especially. I know that in November 2004, 60 million or so Americans (plus or minus a few mil black box voting extras) actually thought they could continue to ignore diplomacy and "stay the course" with a fake cowboy who can hardly stand to say the word, let alone actually try to do it.

I'm hoping a good chunk of those voters are starting to catch on that diplomacy is not such a bad idea, and maybe we ought to hire someone for the job who is actually qualified and interested in doing it.