A Vote of No Confidence

I guess the first words that come to my mind are, “I told you so”, but that is not constructive in the effort to find bi-partisan agreement on our situation in Iraq. What I should be thinking is that this wrong response to the wrong problem. Here are the things we know. We have ourselves in a seemingly unsolvable mess in the Middle East. We have made a huge error in judgment, in the wake of our fear after the twin tower attack on September 11^th. We have an ideologically motivated leader whose world view is incompatible with main stream America.

Our situation in the Middle East is not, no matter what the press in this country would have you believe is not just in Iraq. Going country by country throughout the Middle East, you will find that we have a different set of problems with each one of them. If those problems do not reside in the hearts and minds of the leadership of that country, they certainly are foremost in the people of that country. Do not let anyone tell you it is a religious war and do not let anybody tell you it’s a cultural war. It is, as it always seems to be in these cases, about the needs of people, as expressed as in the need for food, shelter, clothing and security. Our presence in the Middle East threatens all of those concerns for everyone from PM Maliki of Iraq to the cab drivers in Cairo.

We are seen as either physically destroying their country, as we are in Iraq, threatening to physically invade their country as we are in Iran and Syria or propping up a suppressive leadership as we are in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Israel. All of our actions, no matter how well intentioned are interpreted as being hostile and controlling. Are all of these people correct in their interpretations of our intentions and actions? I think not but our leadership has done little to show them otherwise. In fact by being suckered into the reactions we have expressed, we have reinforced their suspicions

We should not have and should never give, as we did post September 11^th, give a president unlimited ability to wage war in our name. In hind sight, it was just crazy to allow anyone the power to wreak havoc with our standing in the world community, by simply wrapping themselves in a flag (and in this case holding bible in one hand) and destroying whole countries without oversight. Yes, I know that bus has passed, but will we never learn?

And lastly, why do we think this latest plan is going succeed? I don’t think we do. What I am afraid will happen is that the old boys in Washington are going to give the President one last chance to hang himself in the history books by screwing us further into the floor boards of a sinking ship. And why you may rightfully ask yourself would they do that? No one, the new democrat majority included, wants to see the government limp along for the next two years. The press could call a vote to not fund Bush’s latest effort to save the day, a vote of no confidence and indeed it would be, but than we have to wait for November 2008 for a vote of confidence wouldn’t we?