How's That "Surge" Comin' Again, Dubya? Gen. Betray-Us...?

[filkertom]

So much progress:

The main Sunni Arab political bloc quit the Iraqi government on Wednesday in a blow to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, while a suicide bomber driving a fuel truck killed 50 people in one of several car bombs in Baghdad.

The Sunni Accordance Front announced its pull-out from Maliki's Shi'ite-led coalition over his failure to meet a list of about a dozen demands, including a greater say in security matters.

The front's 44 members will remain in the 275-seat parliament. Its withdrawal will have little practical effect on the 15-month-old government, which is virtually paralyzed by infighting but needs only a simple majority to keep functioning.

But the shaky coalition is under pressure from the United States and its allies to end sectarian strife between Shi'ites and Sunnis through national reconciliation.

Washington is unhappy at the slow progress towards political benchmarks meant to draw minority Sunni Arabs, dominant under Saddam Hussein, into the political process and away from an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands.

No plan, no clue, no help from their appointed puppets, no help from the officials actually elected. Thousands of US soldiers killed and maimed, tens of thousands of Iraqis killed and maimed and displaced, billions of dollars going to war-profiteering business associates of the Administration, hundreds of billions of dollars perpetuating this illegal invasion we were lied into.

Why aren't we supposed to impeach these motherfuckers, again?

Comments

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

But the shaky coalition is under pressure from the United States and its allies

No, it isn't. It is under meaningless verbal pestering from the United States and its allies, unless and until they know that they're on their own after some near-future X date.

Conservatives used to understand this concept, at least as it pertained to welfare recipients....

[skemono.livejournal.com]

Why aren't we supposed to impeach these motherfuckers, again?
If you believe this guy in comments, it's because Bush "didn't know" what he was doing was blatantly illegal and unconstitutional.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

"If you believe this guy in comments, it's because Bush "didn't know" what he was doing was blatantly illegal and unconstitutional."

So, we've come to the point where Bush's defenders are saying he's a moron?

[admnaismith.livejournal.com]

Hey, the "dunce cap" defense has been a stock tool of the GOP ever since Reagan used it so well.

"What did the President know, and does he know that he knows it?"

[devospice.livejournal.com]

Please see this post about the cost of the war.

It's depressing.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

Tom, much as I'd love to see it, impeachment isn't going to happen. It isn't just because the numbers aren't even there in the Senate or House to pass a non-binding resolution stating that the troops need to come home. It's because the Opposition is only opposed to the President on paper. They're part of the same entrenched machine; they fear tipping the whole thing over and so simply rattle sabers to look like they mean business.

There will be no true change until the whole mess is swept out and replaced, and I don't just mean Washington, D.C.

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

Of course, both our countries are still working with a model of democracy that was devised when the cutting edge of long distance communications was a Really Fast Horse. Might could be time for an update there.

But it is going to be hellish messy.

[twfarlan.livejournal.com]

This is true. The model of the representative republic we see here, where representatives are supposedly democratically elected, has evolved by hook and by crook (literally in some cases) into a system dominated by the wealthy. The system we have now is only democratic on its face; in the US, remember, the popular vote isn't what decides the winner, at least not directly. The electoral college can work things out to where a candidate with an overwhelming lead in the popular vote in a few large states can still lose to a candidate who enjoyed only modest victories in a majority of states. Think Bush v. Gore, 2000 US Presidential election. Worse, when the entrenched power puts its own agents into position to disrupt the checks and balances built into the Constitution (look for instance at the current US Supreme Court roster), it becomes nearly impossible to work within the system because of the corruption stemming from the top down.

"Messy" is polite. I've argued for years that a new nation needs to arise, one built with an understanding of modern humankind and our ways, our trechery, and our potential for corruption and scheming. Every government throughout history has dealt with this, yes, and archaeological research combined with a good foundation in history will often surprise us in how similar we and our ancestors can be (example: murals have been found wherein gladiators in Imperial Roman times advertised for specific wineries and so on, almost indistinguishable from the use of modern sports stars in drink company ad campaigns), the advent of modern technology, especially transportation and communication, take us in directions that even fevered imaginings of magic and myth could not begin to cover.

The entrenched powers will not sit idly by as a new nation rises, even if that nation is not attempting to take already-occupied land. Corporate powers, established families of wealth, bureaucracies, they will all seek to control everything under the Sun.

[patoadam]

tens of thousands of Iraqis killed and maimed and displaced

Approximately 600,000 Iraqis killed, as of a year ago. Two million Iraqis driven from their homes.

[pocketnaomi.livejournal.com]

Because we don't have anything close to the votes to convict them, and without that it's just grandstanding. As we've seen.

[unclelumpy.livejournal.com]

Because somehow that would be "petty".

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

Some people say it's not worth the effort, anymore. I disagree.

[brianh]

Don't forget, those Sunni who left the government are probably connected to the ones we're arming and training to fight shi'a insurgents... so this particular news is even more ominous than it sounds on the front.

The thing that really bites me right now is that impeachment power doesn't rest in the hand of democrats. It rests in the hand of 17-18 (depending on whether or not that Democratic senator with brain cancer is back and voting. No, I'm not counting Lieberman in our numbers) Republicans. :/

Though I sort of wish that the proceedings WOULD start, so we could force them to show where they're standing.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Until we know the votes are there to convict both Bush and Cheney in a single proceeding, starting the process is not just useless, it would be terribly damaging. You may think the Republicans are unreasonable, uncompromising obstructionists today, but you haven't seen them *really* mad.

If the Republican party reaches a tipping point and repudiates Bush/Cheney, so that we have one year of a Pelosi administration or even a deal that puts a comparatively reasonable Republican (who isn't a Presidential candidate) like maybe Dick Lugar in for a year, the Democrats can win the election and have some hope that the Republicans who remain in Congress will be willing to work with the Democrats on the people's business. If we limp along like we are now until November, 2008, and the Democrats win the White House and gain seats in the Senate, the remaining Republicans will also probably be able to govern. But if we try impeachment and fail, the Republicans will never compromise for another generation, and if the Democrats lose the '08 election, the left will be so completely demoralized that the Republicans will have their theocracy for a generation, or at least until the revolution/collapse.