A quagmire of opinion for GOP

In a classic, “well, duh” headline Tuesday the Washington Post announced: “Americans Say War in Iraq Has Not Made U.S. Safer.”

Actually that was the original headline, which was soon softened to “Poll Finds Dimmer View of Iraq War,” subtitled, in much smaller type: “52% Say U.S. Has Not Become Safer.” It’s a good thing the Post clarified that; otherwise readers might have thought every last American man, woman and child believes the war has made us no safer, when in fact there are dozens left to arrive at that stunningly obvious conclusion.

What struck me most about the article, however, wasn’t so much that Americans have finally seen Iraq for the disaster it is -- and is about to become even more disastrous now that our pals, the Shiite leaders, have endorsed the Iranian-trained, Sunni-slaughtering militia -- but that the average American, with no formal training in high geopolitical theory can already see what hubristic neocons could not and will not.

Take, for instance, 63-year-old Margaret Boudreaux, “a casino worker living in Oakdale, La. ‘I don't think it's going well -- there's too much killing,’ she said, worrying that the Iraq invasion could move more enemies to violence. ‘I think that some of the people, if they could, would get revenge for what we've done.’”

Margaret toils in a casino, mind you, yet better comprehends the unrosy ramifications of Messopotamia than the global think tankers. Indeed, she’s intellectual light years ahead of the Bushie crowd.

In the WP-ABC News poll the breakdown along partisan lines was to be expected, with 75 percent of Republicans saying “the Iraq invasion has boosted domestic security” and the same percentage of Democrats saying it had not. The best news for Democrats, however, lay in the majority opinion of independents: “About six in 10 said the war has not made Americans safer.” And that makes the party’s prospects for mining the all-important swing vote much brighter.

As worrisome to congressional Republicans, I would think, is the haunting lilt of the remembered “V” word. “Nearly three-quarters of Americans say the number of casualties in Iraq is unacceptable, while two-thirds say the U.S. military there is bogged down and nearly six in 10 say the war was not worth fighting…. More than four in 10 believe the U.S. presence in Iraq is becoming analogous to the experience in Vietnam.”

Largely because we have the Vietnam experience as a historical signpost, Americans are recognizing more rapidly than before just what defines a quagmire, what one looks like, and how costly one is in human lives, national resources and international standing. Should our involvement in the Iraqi bloodbath continue indefinitely, the “four in 10” ratio will strain to approach equilibrium.

Commenting on the poll’s findings, retired army colonel Andrew J. Bacevich said that Americans are now seeing that “the war in Iraq is not being won and may well prove unwinnable.” Furthermore, in his experienced opinion, Americans could hatch “a conviction that [the war] may not have been necessary in the first place.”

Since the latter of Col. Bacevich’s observations is likely to materialize en masse, Democrats had best distance themselves, also en masse, from support for the war as fast as their normally irresolute feet can carry them. Their best bet is to start speaking out about the Downing Street Memo, as Ted Kennedy and John Conyers have ably done, driving home the point about the war having never “been necessary in the first place,” and educating the public on just how unnecessarily -- and criminally -- it began.

Of course Texas-style congressional redistricting will make the Democrats’ job as unnecessarily troublesome as the war, but one other poll result may be of immeasurable help. “For the first time, a majority, 55 percent, also said Bush has done more to divide the country than to unite it.”

That number too should rise as time passes, though its arrived-at conclusion may turn out to be ironically untrue in the 2006 and ’08 elections. For Bush is doing his level best to unite all Democrats and at least 60 percent of independents and a sizable minority of Republicans in executing a wholesale political housecleaning reminiscent of 1994.

Still, as the informed blogosphere as been urging, the Dems must do more than follow public opinion. They need to lead it.

Comments

[Ron Russell]

Instead of attacking Dean or Dean attacking Rethuglicans, the message from all who oppose Bush should (like the Repugs do), focus on some very narrow talking points. No more than one or two. The first is obvious, that Bush lied and has taken us into the Iraq Quagmire. The 2nd is that Bush continues to be a Serial Liar. ALL THE OBVIOUS LIES HE TOLD ABOUT IRAQ, Social In-Security, The Medicare Drug Deform Act, "Sound (political) Science", etc, etc. We should never let up calling him the liar that he is!!

[Kid Charlemagne]

But Ron, our glorious Emperor Doofus Maximus only lied about the trivial matters that you mentioned, not about something IMPORTANT, like BLOWJOBS!

[Steve Springer]

Bush has been a consistant failure in every endeavor he has attempted. He couldn't find oil in Texas. His baseball team was dead last in the standings throughout his tenure. His business dealings have generaly resulted in bailouts from wealthy friends and family. Texas has a bankrupt education system as a result of his governorship, and the entire state's political apparatus has been corrupted by his minions. He has never been held accountable, and surrounded himself with those of like circumstances. Bush and his ilk have ruined going concerns, plundered them for the sake of a greedy few, regardless of the human and finacial price. Bush has no more concern for America than any other business he has gutted and looted, and will probably never face the consequences of his actions. The rank and file pick up the tab for Bush & Co. Always have, always will.

[P Diddy]

Look how long it took for the people to see 'Nam as the quagmire it was. And a LOT more deaths. We can be lucky we have to "internets" to spread the word like wildfire.

But how are we going to recapture the House and Senate when the voting machines are all network and software rigged by Chuck Hagel's company and others?

Computers, they give; they take away...