I Wish I Were In Paris

From war to peace and politics to gossip, if we have an opinion on something we'll share it here.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Keith Olbermann Speaks The Truth!!

Keith Olbermann speaks the truth!! Will anyone listen?

SPECIAL COMMENT

By Keith Olbermann
Countdown
Updated: 9:33 a.m. CT May 24, 2007

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.
You may trot out every political cliché from the soft-soap, inside-the-beltway dictionary of boilerplate sound bites, about how this is the “beginning of the end” of Mr. Bush’s “carte blanche” in Iraq, about how this is a “first step.”
Well, Senator Reid, the only end at its beginning... is our collective hope that you and your colleagues would do what is right, what is essential, what you were each elected and re-elected to do.
Because this “first step”… is a step right off a cliff.

And this President!
How shameful it would be to watch an adult... hold his breath, and threaten to continue to do so, until he turned blue.
But how horrifying it is… to watch a President hold his breath and threaten to continue to do so, until innocent and patriotic Americans in harm’s way, are bled white.
You lead this country, sir?
You claim to defend it?
And yet when faced with the prospect of someone calling you on your stubbornness—your stubbornness which has cost 3,431 Americans their lives and thousands more their limbs—you, Mr. Bush, imply that if the Democrats don’t give you the money and give it to you entirely on your terms, the troops in Iraq will be stranded, or forced to serve longer, or have to throw bullets at the enemy with their bare hands.
How transcendentally, how historically, pathetic.
Any other president from any other moment in the panorama of our history would have, at the outset of this tawdry game of political chicken, declared that no matter what the other political side did, he would insure personally—first, last and always—that the troops would not suffer.
A President, Mr. Bush, uses the carte blanche he has already, not to manipulate an overlap of arriving and departing Brigades into a ‘second surge,’ but to say in unequivocal terms that if it takes every last dime of the monies already allocated, if it takes reneging on government contracts with Halliburton, he will make sure the troops are safe—even if the only safety to be found, is in getting them the hell out of there.
Well, any true President would have done that, Sir.
You instead, used our troops as political pawns, then blamed the Democrats when you did so.

Not that these Democrats, who had this country’s support and sympathy up until 48 hours ago, have not since earned all the blame they can carry home.

“We seem to be very near the bleak choice between war and shame,” Winston Churchill wrote to Lord Moyne in the days after the British signed the Munich accords with Germany in 1938. “My feeling is that we shall choose shame, and then have war thrown in, a little later…”

That’s what this is for the Democrats, isn’t it?

Their “Neville Chamberlain moment” before the Second World War.
All that’s missing is the landing at the airport, with the blinkered leader waving a piece of paper which he naively thought would guarantee “peace in our time,” but which his opponent would ignore with deceit.
The Democrats have merely streamlined the process.
Their piece of paper already says Mr. Bush can ignore it, with impugnity.

And where are the Democratic presidential hopefuls this evening?
See they not, that to which the Senate and House leadership has blinded itself?

Judging these candidates based on how they voted on the original Iraq authorization, or waiting for apologies for those votes, is ancient history now.

The Democratic nomination is likely to be decided... tomorrow.
The talk of practical politics, the buying into of the President’s dishonest construction “fund-the-troops-or-they-will-be-in-jeopardy,” the promise of tougher action in September, is falling not on deaf ears, but rather falling on Americans who already told you what to do, and now perceive your ears as closed to practical politics.
Those who seek the Democratic nomination need to—for their own political futures and, with a thousand times more solemnity and importance, for the individual futures of our troops—denounce this betrayal, vote against it, and, if need be, unseat Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi if they continue down this path of guilty, fatal acquiescence to the tragically misguided will of a monomaniacal president.

For, ultimately, at this hour, the entire government has failed us.

Mr. Reid, Mr. Hoyer, and the other Democrats... have failed us.
They negotiated away that which they did not own, but had only been entrusted by us to protect: our collective will as the citizens of this country, that this brazen War of Lies be ended as rapidly and safely as possible.
Mr. Bush and his government... have failed us.
They have behaved venomously and without dignity—of course.
That is all at which Mr. Bush is gifted.
We are the ones providing any element of surprise or shock here.
With the exception of Senator Dodd and Senator Edwards, the Democratic presidential candidates have (so far at least) failed us.

They must now speak, and make plain how they view what has been given away to Mr. Bush, and what is yet to be given away tomorrow, and in the thousand tomorrows to come.

Because for the next fourteen months, the Democratic nominating process—indeed the whole of our political discourse until further notice—has, with the stroke of a cursed pen, become about one thing, and one thing alone.
The electorate figured this out, six months ago.
The President and the Republicans have not—doubtless will not.
The Democrats will figure it out, during the Memorial Day recess, when they go home and many of those who elected them will politely suggest they stay there—and permanently.
Because, on the subject of Iraq...
The people have been ahead of the media....
Ahead of the government...
Ahead of the politicians...
For the last year, or two years, or maybe three.

Our politics... is now about the answer to one briefly-worded question.
Mr. Bush has failed.
Mr. Warner has failed.
Mr. Reid has failed.
So.
Who among us will stop this war—this War of Lies?
To he or she, fall the figurative keys to the nation.
To all the others—presidents and majority leaders and candidates and rank-and-file Congressmen and Senators of either party—there is only blame… for this shameful, and bi-partisan, betrayal.

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3 Comments:

  • At 5:23 PM, Blogger LET'S TALK said…

    About this one ParisL0ver, I'll just say what I've said on both conservative and liberal sites:

    There is a Bible story where two women claim rights to a baby... they are taken to the King and he has to make the decision about whom the baby belongs.

    The King said, what I will do is split the baby in half and give you both an equal share.

    One woman said ok give me my half, the other women said, let her have him... I would much rather see him alive with her than to be dead with both of us.

    The King said to that woman; woman take your child, you truly are the mother.

    It seems that this story could apply to what went on with Bush and the Democrats.

    The Democrats would rather drop their benchmarks, then to see the military without funds in Iraq, whereas Bush would rather veto the bill and see the military without funds regardless, so he could get his way.

    There is no way this could have been blamed on the Democrats, when it was Bush who did not accept this bill and there by leaving the troops without funds.

    The Democrats just like the Mother would rather see the funds given to the military where as Bush really did not care as long as he got his way.

    We'll see what happens in September.

     
  • At 8:00 PM, Blogger LET'S TALK said…

    ParisL0ve2, each state and district should demand a recall vote for this President.

    I understand what you are saying, but if we had more Dems in the House and Senate, we could call him on his veto.

    By delaying the funds would only make matters worse for PR by Republicans who spin very well and the Americans go right for that spin.

    When America see that things are the same in September, than I think we can force the President's hand to withdraw the troops.

     
  • At 6:43 AM, Blogger ParisL0ve2 said…

    We shouldn't be waiting until September. We should be demanding it now.

    Mark my words!! September will come and go. The useless Democrats will sit there and say, "Oh Mr. President sir, um...Could you find it in your heart to um...to withdraw our troops? No? Oh okay!! Thank you Mr. President for hearing us out. Now excuse us while we stick our tails between our legs and run away."

    I get what you're saying but I just don't agree. The Democrats have absolutely no spine. I don't care if it would have been a huge PR disaster for them or not. They should have stood their ground on this bill. They should have kept the bill the way it originally was. If Bush wouldn't sign it, that's his problem.

    I'm just sick and tired of hearing, well maybe another time. Well maybe NEVER!! They're not going to force his hand in September. They're not going to force his hand in January. They're never going to force his hand. Meanwhile, more troops and innocent Iraqis are going to be murdered. And I for one will say that the Democrats will have just as much blood on their hands as the King will.

    If the Democrats aren't willing (and yes, it's a matter of willingness to do something not the ability) to do the business of the American people who elected them, they all need to go. While I totally agree that Bush needs to be impeached, so does everyone else in Congress. They all need to go, and they all need to go now!! They are useless!!

     

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