At 2:51 PM -0400 7/16/03, Doug Henwood wrote:
>Smells like intra-ruling-class conflict
(1) Iraqi resistance up -> US soldiers' morale down & anger up -> indigestible lies once swallowed now getting retched up
(2) The missing WMDs issue, as well as Bush's lies about them and incompetent occupation, is a _perfect_ weapon for Democrats:
They can attack Bush and try to have as many anti-war voters as possible remain corralled in the Democratic Party pen: (2a) without looking dumb or devious about having supported the war on Iraq or not having resisted it aggressively -- "You misled us about the WMDs!"; (2b) without having to commit themselves to ending the US occupation of Iraq and yet looking as if they were doing "something" about the occupation when they are doing nothing of the sort; & (2c) thereby exercising Democratic-Party-loving peace & justice bureaucrats to waste time & money (and asking us to waste time & energy) lobbying Democratic (and moderate Republican) Representatives and Senators -- e.g., <http://www.moveon.org/wmdpledge/nozip.html?id=>, <http://www.moveon.org/news/1508.html>, <http://www.moveon.org/misleaderdrive/>, <http://epic-usa.org/action/alert.php?n=63>, <http://www.endthewar.org/big-lie.htm> -- and allowing them to (2c') avoid campaigning really aggressively to Bring the Troops Home Now and End the Occupation and thus also (2c'') avoid having to blow the cover of Democrats, none of whom would call for immediate US troop withdrawal and all of whom are for a "kinder, gentler" occupation, in full view of their constituencies.
Footnotes:
With regard to (2a) & (2b), see, for instance:
***** Members Call for Independent Commission on Iraq Over twenty members of Congress who supported the resolution to use force in Iraq recently introduced legislation to establish an independent commission - modeled after the September 11 Commission - to examine the intelligence about Iraq and the representations made by executive branch officials about this intelligence.
<http://www.house.gov/waxman/> *****
As for (2c') & (2c''), notice that "[o]f the Democratic hopefuls, only Kucinich so far has called for an exit strategy, and even he does not specify a date by which he wants all troops out" (Tom Curry, "The Democrats' Iraq Opportunity," July 14, 2003, <http://www.msnbc.com/news/938301.asp?0si=-&cp1=1>). -- Yoshie
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