All around, our government has failed us on its handling of the Iraq war according to Keith Olbermann. Of course, many will dismiss him as a left-wing nut spouting nonsense. Given Gallup polling that shows roughly 60% of Americans want a deadline set for withdrawal from Iraq, it’s hard to legitimately dismiss this rant as not representative of a large and growing portion of the American public’s beliefs. And while I’ve supported President Bush’s troop surge plan (although I’ve called it insufficient in scope), I’m losing faith in the situation, too. To me, Olbermann’s rant hits dead-on the reality of how Democrats have failed us on our involvement with Iraq by backing down on the troop withdrawal requirement in funding continued war efforts.
A Special Comment about the Democrats’ deal with President Bush to continue financing this unspeakable war in Iraq-and to do so on his terms:
This is, in fact, a comment about… betrayal.
Few men or women elected in our history-whether executive or legislative, state or national-have been sent into office with a mandate more obvious, nor instructions more clear:
Get us out of Iraq.
Yet after six months of preparation and execution-half a year gathering the strands of public support; translating into action, the collective will of the nearly 70 percent of Americans who reject this War of Lies, the Democrats have managed only this:
- The Democratic leadership has surrendered to a president-if not the worst president, then easily the most selfish, in our history-who happily blackmails his own people, and uses his own military personnel as hostages to his asinine demand, that the Democrats “give the troops their money”;
- The Democratic leadership has agreed to finance the deaths of Americans in a war that has only reduced the security of Americans;
- The Democratic leadership has given Mr. Bush all that he wanted, with the only caveat being, not merely meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government, but optional meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government.
- The Democratic leadership has, in sum, claimed a compromise with the Administration, in which the only things truly compromised, are the trust of the voters, the ethics of the Democrats, and the lives of our brave, and doomed, friends, and family, in Iraq.
You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions-Stop The War-have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you… for a handful of magic beans.
Olbermann’s rant goes on far beyond what I have quoted above, and it is one of the best monologues on our government’s failures of late that I have seen. This story is one of my most highly recommended reads that I’ve ever taken the time to post. The link includes a video to go with the transcript.
President Bush has decided to keep letting Americans die in Iraq, and rather than taking control and righting this executive abuse, our Congress has folded. I’m sure fear of losing votes motivated this for the Democrats, which is exactly why they deserve to lose our votes – we need purposeful leadership in our Federal government right now, and it is nowhere to be seen. The sad reality is, though, the current Republicans in office have mostly lost any right to our votes as well by supporting President Bush’s ongoing removal of freedoms in America, meaning we are left with few or no incumbents who deserve to remain in office.
I’m afraid the Democrats have just cost themselves the majority in the next election. The Republicans have spent six years supporting the Executive office in stripping away so much of what makes America great and a world leader, therefore proving they should not hold a majority. This means that I can already see the next election will absolutely suck for Congressional positions and for the President. There is no worthy leadership right now in the White House nor Congress. Our politicians have failed us far more than normal, and have done so for varying reasons – incapacity to see anything other than a moronic “Stay the course” farce, unwillingness to stand up to an abusive President, fear of losing personal and party power, lack of understanding of what constituency wants, and so on. I honestly pray that in the next year, some actual leadership emerges in either party and we start seeing a way to a more sane nation. And I thank Keith Olbermann for his rant that got me to open and make my own mini-rant.
[tags]Keith Olbermann calls out Democrats for failing America, Olbermann rant on Iraq war failures by Executive and Legislative branches[/tags]
