So, George Bush has committed another 20,000 troops to Iraq. It would be great if this investment paid off, but the odds are that it will not. Differences between the sects there, the problem of allocating oil revenues to the entire geography of Iraq, and the interference of neighboring counties will likely torpedo any hopes for a political solution. The violence is therefore likely to continue unabated, and Bush's decision will be shown to be a further futile attempt to achieve his objectives - objectives that were doomed even before the U.S. started this war. In the end, though, the most significant result of this decision will be to bury the republican party in 2008.
The republicans in the congress have no choice but to support Bush's decision. A few may waver, and some will second-guess and waffle, but they will support the decision and fund it without reservation. If the war continues for the next two years and does not succeed despite the deaths of many more soldiers, the republicans will be held responsible by the electorate. Congressmen and senators will lose their seats, and the democrats will win the presidency and hold both houses of congress with a significant majority. Republican domination of the U.S. government will go to its grave.
Rejection of the republican party's war strategy will, consequently, follow the people's rejection of the party's fundamentalist policies on stem cell research (soon to be approved over Bush's veto), its constant invasions of privacy, and its failure to take on global warming and the many major budget and trade issues that are festering. The neocon/fundamentalist alliance that has owned the republican party since 1994 will be buried along with Bush.
Will the moderate republican party of old - the one championing fiscal and personal responsibility, non-intervention, and a laissez-faire attitude toward life styles - ever come back? Probably so, because tides ebb and flow. But the neocons and fundamentalists are likely finished for a long, long time; even political purgatory will be too good for them!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I do so hope you're right. The coverage surrounding Gerald Ford's funeral reminded me that the Republicans once constituted a legitimate alternative. At a minimum we can hope that the neocons go back to whatever stagnant waters of the gene pool they had been lurking in.
I hope the neocons see the error of their ways and repent. Ihey would fight, I expect, if an outside force came in and tried to change their culture. Why can't they understand that people like the Iraqis feel the same way?
But I must admit an error in this posting. The stem cell proponents have majorities in both houses,but the house of representatives did not vote with a 2/3 majority, so Bush's veto will stick. Another reason to get rid of some more fools in red...
You haven't properly addressed the military's complicity or Gate's signing off on the "plan." Petraus and Gates aren't dummies and I don't believe they're so self-serving that they'd propose something that was meant only to tell Bush what he wants to hear. Don't you think there's more to it than is being presented to the public or the congress? Particularly the congress now that it's tipped to democratic control?
The way forward did indeed turnout to be the same old broken course.
Apparently in the land of the seeing, the blind man is decider in chief.
Post a Comment