Two good letters in my local (one on Iraq/Escalation the other on Cheney)

[NewJeffCT]

Playing Games Is Sad
John McCain, and fellow war monger Joe Lieberman, recently announced they support an increase in the number of troops in Iraq. Both senators are being disingenuous, as they know full well that, short of implementing a draft, there are no more troops to send. Colin Powell said there really are no more troops and that the army is about broken. General Abizaid, head of US Central Command, even told McCain on Nov. 15 that he had met with every divisional commander and all said that adding more troops is not the solution. The Joint Chiefs of Staff agree. The only reason why McCain would call for increased troop levels is political. Because when Iraq is worse in 2008 and McCain is running for president, he can claim that if only they had listened to him, Bush would not have lost in Iraq. It is sad to see politicians in Washington playing games with the lives of our soldiers and ignoring the advice of the active military.

Thoughts On Cheney
In his comments about the recently fired Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney had an interesting observation. Cheney called Rumsfeld the greatest Secretary of Defense in history. There are only two ways you can take that remark. One is that President Bush, his boss, has made a huge mistake because he just fired the greatest Defense Secretary ever in the middle of the War on Terror and while the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating. The other reason is that Cheney is lying and is not afraid of anybody in the media or the public calling him on his falsehoods. Since Cheney is also the one that said the insurgency is in its last throes, that Saddam had nuclear weapons and we would only be in Iraq for a few months, I am leaning towards the second reason.

http://remindernewspapers.com/Default/Skins/Vernon/Client.asp?Skin=Vernon&Enter=true&Daily=VERN&GZ=T&AppName=1

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Oh, those are GOOD

I especially liked the second one.....people are starting to pay attention to the man behind the curtain, aren't they?

[MadMaddie]

2. The fact that these letters are getting printed is another good

sign....

[NewJeffCT]

3. New England is different than other areas of the country, though

Even a newspaper that traditionally endorses Republican presidential candidates like the Hartford Courant is pretty open about publishing letters with opposing points of view. (the Courant endorsed Bill Clinton one time and it made national headlines because it was the first time they had not endorsed a Repub for president since the founding of the Repub party)

[malaise]

4. KO on McCain

The former labor secretary, Robert Reich, says Sen. John McCain told him that the 'surge' would help the 'morale' of the troops already in Iraq.

If Mr. McCain truly said that, and truly believes it, he has either forgotten completely his own experience in Vietnam ... or he is unaware of the recent Military Times poll indicating only 38 percent of our active military want to see more troops sent ... or Mr. McCain has departed from reality...John McCain may still hear the applause of small crowds — he has somehow inured himself to the hypocrisy, and the tragedy, of a man who considers himself the ultimate realist, courting the votes of those who support the government telling visitors to the Grand Canyon that it was caused by the Great Flood.

That Mr. McCain is selling himself off to the irrational right, parcel by parcel, like some great landowner facing bankruptcy, seems to be obvious to everybody but himself.

Or, maybe it is obvious to him and he simply no longer cares.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16442767/

McCain is a fugging political whore.