THE HARDEST THING

The latest CBS News poll finds the President's approval rating at a stunning 35%.  The rest of the credible polls (as credible as any qualitative poll can be) are kinder giving the Commander In Chief a nice round 40.  Regardless of specifics, things aren't good for the man who less than a year ago boasted of the political capital he would spend.  The roughly 57% disapproval rating has been the coffee that has sobered up the stumbling, bumbling Democrats who can and may benefit from this turn of fortune.  That is, if any of them can do the hardest thing imaginable in Washington DC. 

Much of W's current woes come from the Valerie Plame scandal.  A very brief recap for cave dwellers; Joe Wilson criticized the government for making up evidence to go to war and in retaliation, they outed his wife, a covert CIA operative.  The specifics of who said what to whom are still being hammered out in an investigation several legal analysts have compared to mapping the chain of command in the mafia. Only one indictment so far for Scooter-the-Squeeler but more rain is promised from the dark clouds hovering over the west wing. 

The story behind the story of the CIA leak probe (a sordid turn of phrase suggesting some quasi-sexual interrogation technique) is juicier than espionage and retributive politics.  Joe Wilson's wife was targeted because Wilson blew a whistle calling attention to what now is unfortunately obvious.  The Neo-Cons in the Bush administration decided long before 9-11 that they wanted to invade Iraq.  The threat of terrorism provided a convenient rationale so 'intelligence' related to terrorism was manipulated or outright fabricated to justify the war.  Rather than use information to craft policy, the administration picked a direction and then conformed the evidence to support the cause. 

Colin Powell went before the U.N. brandishing satellite photos with triangles and target marks doing his best to sell the supposed threat of Iraq and it was all a load of crap.  Since then, not only has Powell gone to the U.N. to apologize for that presentation, in a recent interview he labeled that day the worst of his career. 

If you are one of those new "conservatives" who fancies imperialism or otherwise part of that thirty-something that still like W, you cannot deny that no weapons were ever found and that Colin Powell's triangles pointed to flat sand.  You cannot deny that the Bush administration cut and pasted the intelligence to make the picture they wanted to see and used fear-mongering to cast themselves as the great protectors from mythical beasts.   There were no WMD's.  There were no programs to produce them.  The mushroom cloud inevitability that could blow at any minute was a boogeyman used to keep a post 9-11 populace subjugated by terror both legitimate and manufactured. 

The reason we were told we went to war in Iraq was these weapons. 2000 deaths later, someone owes an explanation as to why we were deceived.  In addition to those 2000+, there are countless other Americans missing limbs, blinded, and catatonic that no one talks about.  Because of advancements in body armor that protect vital organs, the current conflict is comparatively low on casualties.  But citing that alone wrongly dismisses the thousands more laying in pieces at Walter Reed hospital – one of many facilities the pro-military Bush regime has slated for termination.  If a president can be impeached for lying about a blowjob then someone should be held accountable for taking us to war for any reason other than a clear and present danger.  In my idealist concept of transparent and accountable governance Bush would be put on trial by Congress – period.  Since that is still unlikely the best one can hope for is some political opposition that wipes the smirk off that arrogant, snickering face. But, in order to do anything at all, the members of the opposition party must do the hardest thing imaginable in Washington DC. 

The hardest thing to do in Washington DC is admit you were wrong but that is exactly what a lot of Democrats in Congress need to do if any semblance of opposition is to be mounted. 

Nobody ever flat out admits they were wrong.  Verbal contortions that would make the ancient authors of Kama Sutra proud are deployed on Sunday talk shows.  Well I meant… but I said… but I voted… 'cause I thought… looking back…  For Pete's sake, you cast the wrong vote.  If you knew now what you knew then you would have voted differently. And, if you'd had a spine then you would have demanded better evidence than the flimsy unsupported, unverifiable junk you were fed.  You rolled over in a period of national unity and coerced conformity and you're just as culpable as the President you criticize because you were complacent in your deception. 

All the flailing of arms and gnashing of teeth over the big bad Bush administration means nothing if you can't point the accountability guns at yourself.  The next time Senator Reid defecates he should turn around and study it before he flushes because it models the relevance of invoking rule 21 and shutting down the Senate if he can't admit wrongdoing in his own voting record.  The Plame investigation might embarrass the Bush administration and drive his numbers a little lower.  But no effort to hold him truly accountable for the story behind that debacle will ever be successful unless those in power find a way to take responsibility for their actions.  You were wrong.  Just say it. 

Supporting the troops is more than a bumper sticker or a yellow ribbon on the lapel.  It involves not putting them in harms way without a clear reason or a visible endpoint.  It includes never endorsing torture by our side that could be used to justify torture against our guys.  Supporting the troops means frowning upon giving the free world the finger in the lead up to war so that all action and all casualties are concentrated on our service members.  And it includes the most thorough investigation of that war; before, during, and long after the conflict concludes – if it ever does.  If such truly patriotic actions are going to be taken, they must be accompanied with a gulp of humility and an admission of wrong not only by the targets of finger pointing but first by the finger pointers.  That kind of mature analytical approach may be a more affirmative step to true national security than all the color scales and nationalist witch hunts one can conceive.  But it is also the hardest thing imaginable in Washington DC. 

Comments

[Stephen]

Bravo!