Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Democrat Plans

It’s always annoyed me that the Republicans keep yammering that the Democrats have no plan regarding Iraq. And therefore, according to the GOP, the country had best leave the control of government in the hands of Republicans who have a plan. The Republican plan is to keep our soldiers in Iraq to fight the civil war the Bush administration fomented through incompetence. But the Democrats did have a plan early on. The Democrats plan was: Don’t attack Iraq. Then when the White House decided it was going to attack Iraq no matter what, in order to show the world that the US wouldn’t put up with small nations that didn’t willingly hand over their riches to rich Americans, the Democrats kept pushing forward its plan: Don’t attack Iraq, but if you’re going to attack Iraq, do it right. Stuck with a war they didn’t want, the Democrats had a new plan. And that was: put as many soldiers and as much equipment in Iraq as an intelligent war strategist would need in order to get the war over with quickly and our soldiers back home as soon as possible. But the Republicans used the stupidest neocon war strategist they could find and decided to fight their unnecessary war on the cheap. Stuck with a war they didn’t want, devised by the stupidest neocon war strategist in the world, and cheered on by the most incompetent and ignorant president the US has ever had, when the Democrats saw that a civil war had erupted in Iraq, they had another plan: Bring our soldiers home to keep them from being in the position of fighting Iraq’s civil war. But the Republicans said there was no civil war. The Republicans said our soldiers would have to stay in Iraq until the US had taught the Iraqis how to live peaceably among themselves while at the same time the Republicans systematically stole all of Iraq’s riches and resources, and made pots of money by stealing US money ear-marked to rehab Iraq. Currently, the Republicans are saying that all plans devised by Democrats were weak and wouldn’t have worked anyhow. Besides, the Democrats never had a plan. So now the Democrats have a new plan: Vote the Republican assholes out, unload all that secrecy crap, shitcan the bullshit, get a handle on what’s really going on in Iraq and bring the guys home as soon as possible. So there’s the Prez yesterday giving a speech in front of the UN. And just because he can’t remember anything before two hours ago without a cheat sheet, he assumes the whole world has amnesia. But the whole world remembers him standing before the UN on September 12, 2002 as though it was yesterday, when he said: “Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons…the regime is rebuilding and expanding facilities capable of producing chemical weapons…Delegates to the General Assembly, we have been more than patient. We've tried sanctions. We've tried the carrot of oil for food, and the stick of coalition military strikes. But Saddam Hussein has defied all these efforts and continues to develop weapons of mass destruction. The first time we may be completely certain he has a nuclear weapon is when, God forbid, he uses one. We owe it to all our citizens to do everything in our power to prevent that day from coming.” The one contingency that neither Repubs nor Dems took into account was the fact that George W. Bush would so completely blow his credibility. No one listened to him yesterday. He spoke to deaf ears. Time to quote Bobby Burns and his “best-laid plans aft gang agley” line.

1 comment:

Charles D said...

As you point out, the Democrats had several plans - each in reaction to the Republicans. The plans did not show evidence of a consistent philosophy or world view, and in no case did all Democratic "leaders" support the plan of the day.

The problem here is that the Democrats don't seem to have an consistent, underlying world view that provides peace and stability and an answer to terrorism. It's not that such a view is impossible, but that such a view would require the party and the American people to confront some very uncomfortable truths about our foreign policy over the last half century.

It's a tough call, but ultimately if the choice is to tell the ugly truth about America's role in the world or play permanent second fiddle to the fascist wing of the Republican Party, then maybe its time to acquire some gonads.

The Republicans aren't incompetent, they are accomplishing their goals - keep Americans scared, keep the Mideast unstable, raise oil prices, and portray the Democrats as weak on "national security". They're doing a great job.