From : Guy Stevens, CLW [email protected]Reply-To : [email=“[email protected]”][email protected]
Sent : August 31, 2005 Subject : Iraq in August - Tipping Point in Public
Dear Supporter,
Historians will look back at August 2005 and determine that this was the month that produce a tipping point: the American public has shifted against the war in Iraq. Some Americans opposed the war from the start; other increasing saw a failed war; still others came to believe that the United States had done all it can do in Iraq.
August started with 20 American casualties in two days. The mother of a soldier killed in Iraq, Cindy Sheehan, came to symbolize opposition as she camped out near the President’s Texas ranch asking for a meeting with the Commander in Chief. No amount of Republican sliming could dim her credibility nor her appeal to the media – nor still the debate that raged across the country. In a special election for a House seat in Ohio, an Iraq veteran strongly critical of the President’s conduct of war came close to victory in a very Republican district. The first U.S. Senator – Russell Feingold of Wisconsin – came out for a total American troops withdrawal by the end of 2006. Republican politicians up for election in 2006 became increasingly worried over their prospects.
Polls show a majority of Americans feel the war was a mistake in the first place and has made the United States less safe, not more safe.
The White House is feeling the pressure. The President has interrupted his long siesta in Texas to tell Americans how well the war in going and the need to “stay the course.”
It is all so redolent of Vietnam:
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An American President without a clue how to achieve success in a foreign land becomes increasingly divorced from reality.
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He lies to get the United States into the war and he continues to mislead the American people.
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He continues to connect the 9/11 attacks with Saddem Hussein without a shred of evidence.
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He laughably tries to compare the Iraq war to wars for survival in the past, such as World War II, and suggests we fight overseas to avoid fighting at home.
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An insurgency gains ground and an American military, put into an impossible situation by political leaders driven by ideology suffers increasing casualties.
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An American President, dogged by protestors wherever he goes, gives speeches in safe harbors: President Lyndon Johnson at American military bases during the Vietnam war and President George W. Bush at sites in very red states.
Even the struggle for a new constitution in Iraq has produced a no-win situation for the President; a failure to produce a constitution confirms the deep troubles in the country; a success will lead to increasing calls to bring the troops home.
IT ALL SMACKS OF QUAGMIRE, as in Vietnam, as in Iraq.
It is time to bring American troops as home as soon as it can be accomplished safely while leaving the Iraqi people the opportunity to surmount the many challenges they face.
Sincerely,
John Isaacs and Guy Stevens
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i want to talk to these goras. someone introduce to them to gupshup? lets hear the other side as well from their point of view.