There is a huge question as to what the new Democratic Congress will or will not do to stop the stupidity. If they do not do anything meaningful to stop the village idiots from putting more troops in harms way, then we must began now to search for new candidates for their positions in 2008. Better than the Republicans they replaced is not good enough! They need to see now that we mean business! Candidates anouncing now that they will opose those who didn't get the message, will send them a new message. We can not afford to give the new majority a long honeymoon. Speak up! Let your Senators and Congressmen know you expect leadership.

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It is time we fight the terrorists here in the US, the terrorists being anyone who supports George Bush and Dick Cheney. Being someone who believes in the teachings of Jesus Christ, I must define what I mean by "fight". We have to pray that God will have mercy on their souls. We have to take to the streets, peacefully, like Martin Luther King and Ghandi. George and Dick claim to be Christians, but anyone with a knowledge of the Bibile knows that it warns against false prophets. One of the Ten Commandments instructs us 'not to use God's name in vain'. Both sides in this so-called war use God's name to promote their causes. The terrorists are instruments of the devil. I believe good will triumph over evil. WE HAVE TH FIGHT!

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Bush said the word "help" 20 times during this speech.

He presented his "new" plan for Iraq, which he has supposedly been agonising over for many long weeks (between rounds of golf, bike-riding and scrub-clearing), as fundamentally an Iraqi plan devised by the Iraqi government. He set benchmarks for the Iraqi government, which he claimed they had set for themselves.

It sounded more like an al-Maliki plan being presented by Bush, didn't it? But we all know what a joke that is. As Mr Corn says, al-Maliki has said he doesn't even want the job, yet Bush's whole strategery hinges on him. Absurd!

More ominously, he said Iraqi and US forces in Baghdad were suffering from "too many restrictions" and would now have a "green light" to whatever they damn well please (if only they had Green Lantern power rings as well). And he more or less said he is going to bomb Iran as soon as he gets the chance, and other countries in the Middle East are wusses if they don't support him (US forces in Iraq have just raided the Iranian embassy, BTW).

Personally, I can't help wondering if Bush really believes the shit he is saying, or maybe he is just taking a hit for the team. Think about it: Bush goes down as the Worst President Ever, his personal prestige and his administration's credibility in tatters. Maybe the boys at Foggy Bottom will even fake an early death in 2009, give him an alias and let him go clear scrub in Paraguay for the rest of his days. Whatever.

But meanwhile the war in Iraq pushes on for just ... a... little... bit... longer. And maybe the greedy fat cats in the Big Oil corporatocracy think that will be enough for them to get the Iraqi Oil Law signed, which is the key to getting their hands on the oil.

And maybe the greedy fat cats in the armaments industry corporatocracy figure an extra few billion dollars is worth Bush's loss of face.

So maybe somebody was (figuratively) standing behind the curtain with a gun, or a picture of George having sex with his dog, or whatever. And maybe that's why he went out there and read the damned speech.

Or maybe he is just an arrogant, shameless, murdering criminal fool.

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It is a plain falsehood that our committment to Iraq is not openended. Bush will never ever stop trying to get the Iraqi government to do our dirty work: fight the Iraqis trying to kick out the invaders (us). Withdrawing from Iraq is not an option, not because Iraq would have a bloody civil war (since when did blood bother Bush?), but because Bush and his cabal wants permanent bases in Iraq.

The only real question in this mess is wheither the Democratically controlled Congress will allow the Pentagon to call up US military reservists for second and third involuntary deployments. Of course the Congress will pay lip service to deescalation, and of course they won't cut off funding, but they will have to actively pass a law breaking our promise to the reservists-that is a direct betray of the voter's trust that elected a Democratic majority in both the House and Senate.

Yeah, America will have to sacrifice for our Iraqi war effort, but the only ones I see sacrificing is our military, and particularly the reserves. Already the Iraqi war costs more than Vietnam (adjusted for inflation), and we are paying for it by borrowing money from China, while giving big tax cuts for the upper 2%. Shame on our leaders, but particularly shame on us.

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Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush sat down to play poker with the biggest stack of chips at the table, the odds-on favorite to win one of the highest-stakes games ever played. This huge initial chip advantage was built from a unified and supportive citizenry at home, a mainstream media that rarely questioned his judgment or intentions, an international community prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt, and a military machine bigger than the next couple dozen countries combined. But since those early heady days, Bush and his close advisers and neocon allies have made one horrendous decision after another. The great tragedy, of course, is that the president has not only been playing with his own chips. Rather, in this game his poor play has cost the lives of our courageous soldiers and many Iraqi civilians, our country's stature in the world, and our national resources desperately needed for other purposes, domestic and international.

Others, realizing how poorly they've been playing, would recognize that they don't belong at the table—or at least conclude that they had entered the wrong game. Not so with the president. Rather, all signs suggest that this stubborn poker player is unlikely to learn any constructive lessons from his abysmal performance. There are at least five reasons why this is so. First, although a relative novice at the game, he has refused to prepare adequately, hasn't mastered the likelihood of various outcomes, and seemingly hasn't even tried to understand his opponents and their style of play. Second, he has cultivated and embraced an Old West saloon mentality where a loaded six-shooter and a quick draw can turn losing hands into winners. Third, he has a personal history of being bailed out whenever he has come up short in the past, whether through family connections or the highest reaches of our judicial system. Fourth, he has convinced himself that God is personally by his side, presumably with an unlimited supply of aces. And fifth, he is now concerned about his legacy, and likely suspects that only a miraculously successful reshaping of Iraq and the Middle East can save him from being a frequent answer in "worst president ever" debates in the decades ahead.

My list is undoubtedly incomplete, but it is daunting. It suggests that Bush will ultimately be driven to go "all in" regardless of any wiser counsel he might receive. And at the very least, "all in" means continuing to play the Iraq hands as he has done thus far--or perhaps with even greater recklessness and abandon. More frightening still, "all in" may mean saving his very last stack of chips for Iran. As a new year begins, we should all be asking whether anyone can pull him away from the table before it is (again) too late.

As an addendum, the appeals Bush and his supporters will use in defense of their actions are predictable. I describe some of them in detail in an online video entitled "Dangerous Ideas: How Conservatives Exploit Our Five Core Concerns" that can be viewed HERE.

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Republicans are always planning ahead for the next election, and the next and the next. Democrats on the other hand are perennial fall guys, chumps who always end up blindsided by Republican’s underhanded tactics. For example, Bush’s “surge” won’t win the war in Iraq, it is only intended to postpone defeat until it can be dumped on the next president, whom Republicans have reason to believe will be a Democrat. Republicans are not stupid. They know their record of corruption and war profiteering will likely to cost them the next presidential election, but that is a slap on the wrist considering the incredible profits they have stolen for their masters.

By 2012 most Americans will have forgotten that Republicans lied us into an unwinnable, but very profitable war, and Democrats will be blamed for losing the war. Then their plutocratic masters will reward them with bountiful campaign contributions which will insure their return to power.

The best poker players know they can’t win every pot, they know when to hold ‘em, when to fold, and when to go All In.

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There is nothing Bush can say to make the majority of Americans support the surge. Bush has cooked his own goose and he will choke on it until Presidency and he do part.

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The bases you have in Iraq are hinged to operate either way. A defensive block against invasion from Iran and or a pivot to launching heavily supported thrusts into the oil fields of Iran. Purpose, To control assets in the region to prohibit other nations from benifiting from oil deals that would exclude the USA and its banker UK. This would enable the USA to at least have a chance to stabalize its failing economy and allow the sterling to go on and prop up the $US. If one goes so does the other. The Euro is the way ahead and insulates those that hold them against the $US fall.
The insanity you see evolving from your white house is now so transparant that it is a major embarassment for even their own Repuglicans.....Your democrats are only now holding up this rag of an administration for all to see. Better late than never and if you vote with bu$hco then you will be consigning yourself to poverty.

They Bu$hco will be working all out to hit Iran. The iranians are not stupid. they have been warned off by all the major powers of the real intentions of the Bu$hco and will wait out the clusterf@#ks one after another. It's one of the things they do best......They tell me for some many thousands of years and after all there are only some 300 Mil americans. We said to your Clinton in all honesty.....would you not be working hard to place america amongst friends as you slide from number one to number three...he agreed and then we see what this administration, bu$hco is doing and turn away.

I said to you that your generals were returning to Rome but I see that he has sacked them......He has treated them with contempt and now he has just SACKED YOU.

Oil has been the currency but saving your Dollar is the prize.... both your houses know this. Thats why they are speaking the same language. They are quite happy and so are the Isreali's, to burn rape and pillage two soveriegn nations and it's peoples.....for exactly what!!!!!!!

Welcome to REAL amerika. Not the real NEW AGE ORDER of the NEW Millenia

Captain OUT

PS. To BIG W. If you think that they do not have a plan to counter you with, then sonny jim, your all outa luck

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Simply a Crisis in Confidence. The American people have tuned out Bush's words, they no longer have meaning. If this speech and the concurrent actions were made at least three years ago it would have made a difference, now it is just too late. Bush must be relieved of his job!!!!

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He is nuts. Completely insane with religion and delusional. nothing about his life is positive. he's always been a fuck up and a failure. But because he's from a rich white elitist family, he, and peole like John Kerry, can do whatever the hell they want becasue they have lots and lots of money and connections to the corporate power structure. But Bush is nuts.

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Historians are not going to be kind to George W. Bush, our 43 President of the USA. This comment presupposes our national heritage survives into the future. George has been working tirelessly to morph our heritage into a one-branch government, his executive WH. This is Mr. Bush's war. I support our fine men and women in uniform, and I say to Mr. Bush, you are killing them needlessly!

I just saw the bbc website run a headline that reads, US to go after nations that are destablising Iraq. Irony of all ironies! -Kevo

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How could anyone call it a surge by adding only 20,000 troops? Let's do a simple math. We have about 130,000 troops now, but we once had about 150,000 to 160,000 there some short times ago to protect the election. Hence we don't have more troops even than what we had before!!!! How could anyone think we could do better this time? Just a joke. Those guys not only don't know anything about history, they don't even know anything about 1st grade math.

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Not that I don't have faith in Arlington, it is the place I was when Bush completely lost any notion of trust, at least in my eyes. In what turned out to be his ONLY successful business deal ever, he and his cronies bought the Texas Rangers, the ONE team in American big league baseball who have never in their history as a team won a pennant. Not when they were the Senators, not as the Rangers. The Curse of Fenway is nothing like what these dudes have on them.
Then insisted that Arlington subsidize building a new Ballpark for the losingest team in American baseball history. Said if they didn't he would take the team elsewhere. I was ready to volunteer to help them load their gear into the trucks, and organize a farewell party for them too.

I don't follow baseball, never much cared for it. So something like that entering my brain was a miracle from God.
But Arlington caved to his blackmail. As soon as the Ballpark was approved, "his" players and staff, along with the rest of the properties, were sold. Like the way he sells "his" troops every day.
His one successful deal was a con game. Now there's a leader worthy of our trust, yes sir!

So I have been blogging much snotty commentary about the way his tame media have been hyping the Announcement of Yestereven.
Headlines in "news" stories like Only 2 more days until President Bush unveils his New Plan"

Every day on the news and in the papers and their AP postings on Yahoo.

And the editors and writers of this shit actually get paid for it? I know no serious journalists would ever invest in that. Somebody Else has to be paying for crap publicity like that.

Somebody Else who could gain from having the American people that the American People were actually waiting for Our Leader to pull our collective nuts out of the fire.
That we actually anticipated a serious plan.

You know that rug in front of his desk in the Oval Office, with the Presidential Seal on it?
I was kinda hoping that after the speech he would dance nekkid on the rug. It would have been fitting and the chances of that happening WERE after all greater than him pulling our collective nuts out of the fire.

The city of Arlington nearly went bankrupt due to his thievin' lyin' ways. And in Texas you can't run a municipality in debt. They would have had to literally sell the town. Maybe whatever corporation bought out the Ballpark deal from Arlington can pull our nuts out.

Or just the nut I wanted to see dancin' nekkid on the presidential seal.

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He is and always has been an embarrassment and he will continue to be until he is thrown out or finally leaves in 2009.

If Cheney, Bush, Rice and Rumsfeld had any morals at all they would commit suicide.

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Underlining what seemed like confusion was the TALK about Iran. The Chess game goes on. This move is distraction for the masses in good ole USA.
The Neocon-BushCo plan regarding the strike on Iran has been set in motion. The Euro, Blood for Oil, and Drug Routes are big stakes...upper and middle class Iraqis have left town!!!!
Don't you GET IT, you 98% of the US population? Money and power trumps. Decent soft-hearted humans are losers and sooooooo easy to lead.

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have the American people BELIEVE that the American people were waiting anxiously.

or maybe is should lay off the compounded sentences for a while.

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It would be far easier than convicting him or impeaching him. All it takes in American jurisprudence is for a Physician, a Magistrate, and either his next of kin, or (especially since his whole family is as crazy as he is) a government official acting In Loco Parentis (latin for in lieu of his family) swear out a mental health warrant and have him locked up.

The surgeon general can do it easily. In fact he has a legal duty to do so.
We have never had a President taken out in a straight jacket, or even in handcuffs, But the law does provide for such measures.

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I just ran into an eye-opening column a couple days ago entitled “Ethics Problems at Alternet” written by Al Giordano about Don Hazen in 2002. Hazen is the current executive director of Alternet. Giordano is editor of Narco News Bulletin and considered by many as one of the finest front line journalists working today. It was his successful NY State court battle, concluded at the end of 2001, which secured important internet press freedoms. Giordano is a well-know champion of “authentic journalism,” and his readers know that he is a relentless and fearless journalist who deals with facts.

Giordano’s long article, which can be found by Googling “Al Giordano and Alternet” makes a number of serious charges against Hazen. These charges include Hazen’s theft of royalties from writers, his blacklisting of writers, his lying to Giordano when confronted about trying to sell stories written by other writers without permission, and his asking his staff to post bogus positive “reviews” of Alternet publications on Amazon.com. Now, over FOUR YEARS after Giordano published this column, Mr Hazen is still the executive director of Alternet.
According to Giordano, the only response Hazen has made to his questions and before writing the column was to lie and attack him personally, (Giordano also mentions Hazen’s brazen attack on Jeff Cohen and FAIR in what appears to be an attempt to secure more donor funding for his own operation.)

The hypocrisy of all this is amazing: Unlike the folks at Halliburton or the Bush Administration, for example, Alternet is a website which day in and day out publishes articles and opinion demanding transparency and honesty from others, whether it be the government, big business or the corporate media. And yet this very same website is being directed by someone who, according to a highly reliable veteran journalist noted for his uncompromising integrity, has violated a whole mass of basic journalistic principles and ethics and so far has gotten away with it.

Read the article by Giordano and make your own judgment. (Again, just Google “Al Giordano and Alternet.”) There is also a growing exchange of posts concerning this issue in the comments section to “Will Bush Provoke a Constitutional Crisis?” published on 1/7 here at Alternet. It begins with the post, about half way down, entitled “Hmm....Alternet not such a nice buncha kids, hmm?” which first brought this article to my attention, and then develops into an exchange mostly between staff member Joshua Holland, several supposedly posters who are supposedly unconnected with Alternet (make your own judgment about that after reading this exchange,) and myself.

After reading this material, I’d be interested in hearing from other Alternet readers how all of this sits with them. My opinion is that Mr Hazen owes readers and supporters of Alternet a detailed explanation which sticks to the facts and is not loaded down with Ad Homonym attacks on those requesting such an explanation.

If these charges are indeed true, and Don Hazen has never responded to this story to my knowledge, then I think that Don Hazen as executive director of Alternet destroys the inherent credibility of Alternet, makes a mockery of its professed political mission, and should be forced to resign sooner than later. So far as I know, there is no statute of limitations on basic journalistic integrity and ethics within any credible news organization that I’ve heard about. I’d be interested in hearing comments from others about this.

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Bush did NOT give us a 'mea culpa' when he said: "Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me." He used the passive voice, which implies that the mistakes were committed by God-knows-whom, indistinct "somebodies." He hoped – and we fell for it – that we would infer that he was talking about himself, while his language (or the language of his speechwriters) said nothing of the sort.

The arrogant twerp we laughingly call our president still cannot be honest with himself or the american people; and this is a more important fact than anything he said last night. It is also the reason his "new way forward" is exactly the same as what his backward administration has tried, and failed at, in Iraq before. He simply cannot believe that he is ever wrong. This is a delusion shared by spoiled brats and the insane.

Nothing changed with his speech last night, and the only thing "new" we can expect from Iraq is new killings. Unless he decides to invade Iran, in which case our troops in Iraq will be on the losing end of a "new" rendition of "Custer's Last Stand."

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Not even Bush dares mention the privatization of Iraqi oil fields for the benefit of his Halliburton-Exxon-Chevron-BP-Shell cronies - because the fact is, if the powers that be really wanted to halt the Iraqi insurgency, the single most effective step is to allow the Iraqi government to nationalize the oilfields and control their output - but Bush says that then the oil revenues would be used to 'support terrorism'.

As if the US-Saudi petrodollar scheme hasn't been the number one supporter of global terrorism for decades now - as if Osama bin Ladin didn't get all his funding from Saudi oil sales - as if 15 of 19 9/11 hijackers didn't come from Saudi Arabia - and so on. I wonder if Bush's calls for liberating the Middle East extend to replacing the Saudi religious monarchy with a democratic government - not likely! Lord, how much bull can one spout in 20 minutes? I think Bush set a new record...

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A good article, as usual, David. But Robert Scheer has the edge this time. His Hamlet parody was quite clever. :-)

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President Bush has again done the unthinkable: at a time when the majority of Americans want a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, he has announced his plans to escalate the conflict. This is a blatant dismissal of the American people (only 11% support a troop increase according to a Jan. 7 poll) and the advice of his top military advisors-- and it's a critical litmus test for the new Congress. For an analysis of this test, read Has the New Congress Already Failed the Test?, written by VotersForPeace Co-founder Kevin Zeese.

The Democrats have stated that they will "attempt to derail funding" for Bush's proposed escalation, but they also need to refuse Bush's upcoming appropriations request for $127 billion to maintain our illegal occupation of Iraq. This is the best way that Congress can spark the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, but it's going to take a lot of work on our part to make our members of Congress vote the right way.


For the next month, help by calling your members' offices, emailing them, and scheduling meetings to get their commitment to refuse further funding for the war. In these meetings or phone calls, try to get them to make a formal statement in support or opposition to Bush's appropriations request.


Then, on January 27, anti-war activists from across the country will rally in Washington, DC for the March on Washington, organized by United for Peace and Justice. Join tens of thousands of Americans in this act of solidarity! Go to www.unitedforpeace.org to connect with people in your area who are attending, sign up on ride boards, volunteer on the day of the event, or assist the outreach effort.

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Maliki is Bush's lifeline in Iraq.

well, I suspect it’s the other way around, unless Maliki just doesn’t want in any more. In this case Bush has to hold their feet to the fire.. If the Iraqi’s aren’t willing to make it work, then not much else anyone can do.. We got rid of Saddam, and while Iran and others are stirring up the violence in the end, it’s up to Iraq. If they can’t hold up their part.. well, Iran has it all to themselves..

The hard part is going to recall reserves and guard units again… as someone pointed out on CNN, if the American people aren’t behind this, it’ll never work. If they are it has a good chance..

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One thing everyone should know by now is that with the bushies, nothing is what it seems to be. The crooks behind the curtain have some no good in mind, and it ain't "winning" the so-called war in Iraq. Control of Iraqi oil means not only bargain basement prices for US and UK interests, but denial of that oil to China, India,and Russia. That's the reason for the 14 permanent bases under construction in Iraq. If we protest loudly enough, there are those detention camps under construction in the USA, by everyone's friend, Halliburton. It doesn't get any better than this.

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...it won't matter because Zombie Bush is going to NUKE Iran and we will be killed before Congress or public pressure can derail his nightmare schemes.

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Congress may not be able to do anything about it, but we, the people can.
Congress is stymied by this minor ramping-up of troops. They are afraid of falling into the cleverly set political trap of refusing to come to the aid the Iraqi government and costing us the war. Failure would be blamed on democrats and used to hoist the republican flag past half mast, where its been since November. What will congress do when Bush asks for 20,000 more in another six months?
STREET PROTEST IS THE PUBLIC'S LOUDEST AVENUE
Vote. Contact your Congressperson and Senator. Then protest! All these avenues are historically legitimate methods of affecting government policy. But protest is now the most effective way to be heard until 2008. So get off your duff! Email congress and then contact your local activist organization about where and when the next protest will be.
See you in the streets!

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...Bush has caved into Dicks threats of killing him and his family.
The sabotage of Airforce 1, the death of his security escort and the threat to kill his twins in South America has stopped any resistance Zombie Bush may have had. Game is up.

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to imply that Bush knows how to read

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I mean, REALLY!

Has he ever NOT worn his true feelings all over his face?
That's why he's always been so easy to catch in a lie!

Smug, arrogant, holier-than-thou, above reproach, a living example of the Peter Principle, etc.
- it's all right there on his face! He doesn't even try to hide it. He doesn't think he has to, I guess. Maybe that comes from growing up with the proverbial Silver (coke) Spoon, eh?

Right now, TV shows about Poker are currently-in-favor - everybody has one. I'd love to see what a panel of all these 'experts' at reading people's faces would say about him on any given speech....

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Here's your chance to get out and do exactly what you're saying everyone should do (you too?) There are events happening all over the country today. Go to americasaysno.org to find an event near you and let our terrorist-in-chief know he's not committing terrorism in our name.

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Indeed, Bush has gotten around to recognizing reality -- at least its most obvious elements.
David Corn's ridiculous statement is based on the weird assumption that Bush is a normal human being. The Chimp is anything but. He's a mentally disturbed individual, a child-tyrant fixated on playing soldier-cowboy-hero as if the real world is non-existant. He's the spoiled rich kid who's never experienced the real world, not for one day in his life. No sane person could ever "dip their toe into reality" and only see the "most obvious elements" present, in light of the real situation we're facing right now. Bush still thinks he's making a movie: "George Bush dreams of himself in High Noon, while, in reality, he's directing a horror movie or a snuff film." (Tom Englehardt, "The President Alone in the Dark") meanwhile the rest of the world is about to burn hotter from the petrol he's tossing onto it, thinking he's just playing in the nursery. That's the real Bush. Wake up, David, you've nodded off or something in the last few months. The real bush needs either a spanking or to be physically restrained so he cannot harm himself or any of the rest of us. Corn's piece is just distraction from the real pressing need of the moment: to stop this madman's fantasy.

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Bush has to be up to something and so far he has "hoodwinked" the press. How can anyone possibly believe that a 20K increase in troops for Baghdad, a city of 6 million, will save the day for the USA? I mean, this is about as credible as the entire WMD fiasco. A couple possibilities here, one is to hold off total defeat to dump the entire problem on the next president, presumably a Democrat. Or, an excuse to say "we tried" prior to pulling out all the troops (too bad for those maimed or killed in the meantime). Or, the last possible reason and the scariest of them all. The cover for the Iran/Syria invasion. No doubt, Israel has been pushing America hard for this, and they are about the only one to conceivably benefit from such a scenario. This will be a disaster of great proportions and even perhaps a prelude to WWIII. We should all hope that the first two reasons I gave above are ones Bush has adopted. Otherwise, we are all in serious trouble.

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The 10% solution. Currently, approximately 200,000 soldiers fight for 'democracy' in Iraq [roughly US troops + foriegn troops + paid mercenaries (i.e. Blackwater)]. So, the President's solution is to add 10% more (20,000 troops). Even assuming these extra troops perform 100% efficient, things will merely get 10% better in Iraq. Will 10% be worth the continuing carnage of American soldiers? Don't look to the Democrats for help. They will sit idly by as they did when the gov't suspended habeas corpus, opened mail, banned the novel "America Deceived" from Amaz