Good time to take a DU Break...

[NightOwwl]

I need to get some work done anyway.

Given time, knowledge and understanding I think (hope) most of the nay-sayers will begin to understand that yesterday was 1) a historic coming-together moment for the Dems 2) the end of the ability to use smear and fear tactics sucessfully by the Pubs and 3) the beginning of a real debate led by our wonderful Democratic party on how to finally pull our troops out of this unwinnable war.

In the meantime, here's an article that I hope will convince some of the party-poopers that the Republicans made a huge miscalcution:

White House plays chicken with a war hero

THE WHITE House is so deluded, it actually believes it can turn a soaring hawk into a scrounging chicken. Stung by the call by US Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania to pull out of Iraq, Scott McClellan, President Bush's press secretary, said this week, ''It is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party."
In a 2002 press briefing, former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz termed the support of politicians like Murtha for the Pentagon as ''wonderful." In the 2004 vice presidential debate, incumbent Dick Cheney said, ''One of my strongest allies in Congress when I was secretary of defense was Jack Murtha."

<snip>

One month after the invasion, when no weapons of mass destruction had yet been found, Murtha warned that American credibility was at risk. By the September, the absence of weapons of mass destruction made him join the much more liberal House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, in calling for Bush to fire the planners of the invasion. Despite the proclamation that ''we achieved a marvelous military victory," Murtha became increasingly frustrated with the chaos of the occupation. This summer, Murtha said administration officials were ''not honest in their assessment" that they were winning the ongoing battle.

<snip>

Finally, this week, Murtha unleased a scathing attack on Bush's Iraq policy. He called it ''a flawed policy wrapped in illusion." He said he believed military officials when he visited Kuwait just before the war and they showed him where American forces would be attacked by weapons of mass destruction when they approach Baghdad. But now, with no end to the killing in sight, he said, ''The US cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. It's time to bring the troops home. . .They have become the enemy." Murtha talked about soldier after soldier he has visited in hospitals, wounded and maimed by the invasion. Yet, there's more terrorism now than there ever was and it's because of what? Is it because of our policy? I would say it's a big part." In perhaps the most humble admission of his press conference, Murtha said, ''The American public is way ahead of the members of Congress."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/11/19/white_house_plays_chicken_with_a_war_hero/

edited to add a couple of paragraphs from the article.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Oh yeah

I think you are right, and here's why: a Guard unit in Springfield MO is being deployed to Iraq for the second time in two years. The second time in two years-think the disruption in their lives, of the uncertainty, of the dread--I'm hearing people in this city, home of John Ashcroft, Gov. Blunt and Rep. Blunt, saying enough is enough. They don't have to get their news from Washington-they are getting it from their loved ones, their neighbors. When I'd go to Springfield in the past, I'd see a lot of Bush signs on cars. Not so many now. Hardly any now. But I've seen Kerry stickers-and anti-Republican stickers, and I was up there last weekend.