*Many people are speaking up against the administration's escalation of the war in Iraq. Here are some excerpts from the
Concord Monitor:
...conservative Dems finally jumped the administration's sinking ship. Florida's Bill Nelson said, "I have supported the administration. . . . I cannot continue. . . . I have not been told the truth, over and over again. The American people have not been told the truth."
And the Republicans! It was as if their tongues had been unzipped. Maine's Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins expressed strong reservations. Others went further.
Ohio's George Voinovich: "I've gone along with the president on this and I've bought into his dream, and at this stage of the game I just don't think it's going to happen."
Minnesota's Norm Coleman: "A troop surge would put more American troops at risk to address a problem that is not a military problem. . . . It is not a strategy for victory."
Kansas's conservative Sam Brownback: "I do not believe sending more troops to Iraq is the answer. Iraq requires a political rather than a military solution."
Oregon's Gordon Smith had already startled the political world by proclaiming in a Dec. 8 speech on the Senate floor that he was at "the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs, day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal."
After Bush's speech, Smith said, "I'm skeptical . . . unless there's some redefinition of victory that I haven't heard yet." Then he called Ted Kennedy's proposed legislation requiring congressional authorization of any war escalation "a good idea."
The most stunning denunciation came from Nebraska's Chuck Hegel, a decorated Vietnam War vet, who called the new direction "a dangerously wrongheaded strategy." Bush's speech, he said, "represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam, if it's carried out."
Will these Senators back down if they receive pressure from the White House? If people contact their Senators and Representatives and let them know that Bush's war plans are unacceptable, then perhaps we will have a real change of direction.
At this point, only Senator John McCain and Senator Joe Lieberman are the most vocal supporters of the President's plans for escalation in Iraq. McCain wants to run for President. If McCain is elected President, will that guarantee a continuation of the war and Bush's failed policies in Iraq?