"It is Time to Bring Them Home"

Murtha is correct, and no amount of bloviating by Shrub, Big Time, or Kim Granger can change reality--reality catching up all-too-rapidly for the reality ignoring administration. The GOP's ONLY concern is declining poll numbers; soldiers on their third or fourth tour in the combat zone have far more significant concerns.

Murtha is also correct in noting the public is "way ahead of us," "us" presumably being pigs at the District's virtually limitless trough--and not just those in direct government employ--Digby's closing paragraph is worth citing in its entirety:

Woodward, like Broder and Sally and Richard Cohen and Cokie and the rest of the moribund DC establishment, are obsessed with the social and personal activities of their King (and their own relationships to him) and have absolutely no interest or insight into the corrupt, depraved, malevolent political force the Republican Washington establishment has become. (It's hardball politics!) As long as they are getting their due deference and nobody's slip is showing, they are more than happy to keep any behavior that the unwashed masses might find unpalatable under wraps-- things like war or institutionalized character assassination. The only scandals worth reporting are "too many marts" and "trashing the place"--behaviors that imply the courtier's social mores are unimportant. Tsk tsk tsk.

The disconnect between those at the trough and those in the trenches--and their loved ones in fly-over country--couldn't be more profound.

Funny enough, disconnect used to be a GOP talking point--I recall their derisive use of the term "inside the beltway". Guess they really were just envious.

But I digress. The point is that the wheels have not merely blown off--that happened quite some time ago, well before Mission Accomplished--but the motor's making funny noises, the brakes don't work, there's not even enough money for gasoline...and the driver can barely speak in complete sentences, much less figure out how to either repair things or even slow down/stop before the impending wreck. And it's not like Big Time is really any different--hell, he was the one telling Shrub to floor it in the first place.

And that's just the political situation over here. Over THERE, in the hot zone, as it were, things are TRULY a Big Time (pun intended) mess. No wonder Team Bush--and their minions/synchophants--are behaving like a pack of cornered hyenas. Hat tip to Oyster--again.

Link:

The old chestnut has been hauled out in public again: if you do not support the war, if you do not support Bush, you are betraying our troops and giving aid and comfort to the enemy. It's an oldie but a goodie. It is worthwhile, in the face of this resurgent nonsense, to take a long, hard look at what "aid and comfort" really is.

George W. Bush's decision to invade and occupy Iraq - and it was his decision, as he made clear when he said it was "perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war" in his ham-fisted Veterans Day speech last week - has done more to increase the fortunes of al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden than any war critic ever could.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq has created a rallying point for extremists all across the Muslim world, and has given them a marvelous opportunity to refine their murderous craft by constructing bombs that kill American soldiers and Iraqi civilians every single day. There were no al Qaeda terrorists in Iraq before this occupation. Now, there are lots of them, and they are getting plenty of practice.

The invasion and occupation of Iraq allowed Osama "bin Dead and Alive" Laden to slip the noose set for him in Afghanistan. We had him cornered up there in the mountains near the Pakistani border, but our best troops and equipment were pulled out and sent to Iraq instead. Maybe Osama is already dead - like his friend Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has been reported killed approximately four hundred and thirteen times, only to constantly resurface as the mastermind of a dozen bombings and attacks - and maybe not. The fact that he was never captured, tried and convicted for his crimes, the fact that he may still be out there, is a boon to those who have flocked to his banner. Aid and comfort indeed.

The decision to allow the torture of detainees in Iraq - a decision that came directly from both Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, according to former administration outsider Lawrence Wilkerson - gave the world the horrific images of Abu Ghraib. When those photographs hit the Arab street, they provided inspiration for thousands of people in Iraq and elsewhere to give their lives to the idea that killing American soldiers is a nifty and necessary thing to do. It was the best recruitment drive for al Qaeda that could have ever been conceived.

And there are more photographs to come.

The decision to invade Iraq has made the world less safe. Look at the wreckage left behind by the bombing of those hotels in Jordan last week. The perpetrators were not hardened al Qaeda veterans who learned to fight in the Hindu Kush by killing Russians on behalf of the Reagan administration. The perpetrators were all Iraqis. Mr. Bush's misbegotten adventure in Iraq has left the nest, and is spreading out into the wider world.

I'm sure Murtha also is aware of this. So too, is the American public.