Blog spotlight: Are we getting serious?

Are we getting serious? That's the question Elaine asked this week at Like Maria Said Paz.

"War would end if the dead could return"
Mike and I are noting the same two things from Democracy Now!

October Marks Fourth Deadliest Month for U.S. In Iraq
And U.S. losses in Iraq continue to rise. Seven U.S. soldiers were killed on Monday bringing the monthly death toll to 92. This made October the fourth deadliest month of the war for U.S. troops.

Report: 40 Iraqis Die in U.S. Bombings Near Syria
In Iraq, hospital officials in the town of Qaim say up to 40 people were killed Monday in U.S. bombings near the Syrian border. An Iraqi doctor said many of the killed were women and children. Local residents said U.S. aircraft carried out a series of bombing raids beginning shortly after midnight and continuing until dawn. Military officials said they were targeting safehouses used by a local Al Qaeda leader.

The dying continues. The deaths keep mounting. Today the Senate went into a closed door session on Iraq called by Harry Reid. Reid reportedly confronted Pat Roberts on his broken promise. Prior to the election, Roberts promised to hold an investigation into the "intelligence" that got us into war. That investigation hasn't been held.
Are we getting ready to ask the serious questions, the ones that the country needs asked and answered?
On the radio yesterday, I heard this from Harry Waxman (consider it a paraphrase because these are from my own notes), "We've never had a day of hearings in the Congress of the United States, neither the Senate, nor the House. If you could hold that in contrast with what the Republicans did when Clinton was president, they had 10 days of hearings on whether Clinton used his White House Christmas card list for political purposes. But here, something as important as the manipulation of intelligence and other information by this administration to convince the American people to go to war under false pretenses, I think we ought to investigate it."
So how serious is Harry Reid? Is this a moment of truth or just some raw meat tossed out to the base? This is serious and Harry Reid better be. Americans are turning against the war. The trend is holding. We're looking for leadership and the Democrats can't just stand on the sidelines, they have to offer some hope to the people. Getting us out of an illegal war would give hope. They need to stake out the ground now because as the 2006 elections get closer, Bully Boy will probably pull a Nixon.
C.I. and I were talking about this. The war is too unpopular for him to let his party campaign on it. So he may offer some "secret plan" like Nixon did. If he does that, he and his party will have a position, a phoney one, but a position none the less. No matter how phoney their positions have been in the past, when Democrats have refused to speak up, a lot of people fall for the nonsense, especially with a compliant media perfectly willing to repeat what ever the administration puts out without ever questioning it.We need leadership and the Democrats better be serious about providing it.
A year ago, cowardliness was bad enough but now with the trend holding in the polls of people feeling the war was a mistake, it's time for leadership.
Otherwise, this war will go on and on and the casualities will continue to mount.

"Peace Quotes" (Peace Center):
War would end if the dead could return.
Stanley Baldwin

like maria said paz
mikey likes it
the common ills
democracy now
iraq
harry reid
henry waxman
posted by Elaine @ 7:10 PM