I promised Russ when we started this site that I'd try to keep it at least half-way civilized. I guess it's a good thing I have a place of my own where I don't have to.

I need a drink, but since I don't have one I'll have to settle for just staring at the ceiling for a while and trying to get some sleep. I'll be back. The campaign to take back our country starts today. Maybe, just maybe, there will still be something worth saving by the next election.

Contributed by Bill Faith on November 8, 2006 at 01:40 AM in Bill Faith, Politics | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Piscivorous

I live in Florida district 23. My vote made absolutely no difference yesterday today or tomorrow. My Congressman is the impeached federal judge Alcee Hastings who ran unopposed. Unfortunately the Republican Party can’t even bother to field someone to run in this district and will now give rise to the oxymoron House Intelligence Committee. My Republican choice for the U.S. Senate was the bimbo Katherine Harris as opposed to the Democrat Bill Nelson, a reasonable Senator with at least half a brain.

I read a lot of history and given my personal history that fact that we are now involved in an existential struggle is obvious to me. It has also become obvious to me, for quite sometime, that the Republican Party and its leadership have been negligent and immature in numerous ways and is incapable of governing in a responsible fashion. It has therefore been given the drubbing it so generously earned.

I can understand your being very upset with the election results. Elections are however the one tool we have to hold our elected leaders accountable for their actions. Having read both Old War Dogs and Bill’s Bites for some time I also understand that you believe in accountability and taking responsibility for ones actions. Now we as a country must find a way to live with the detritus for Republican misconduct and hubris.

The President’s legacy is intrinsically linked to the successful persecution of this war and directly with the outcome of the Iraqi campaign. Unless President Bush has been lying the campaign in Iraq has at least 2 years to show signs of progress that even the media can’t ignore or conceal. I think that the election results have made this somewhat less likely in the short term but not necessarily in the long view of things. I expect that there will be a upturn in the violence in Iraq as the terrorists and Bathists try to reinforce the perception that Iraq is an unsolvable quagmire. But if we persist in pursuing the training of Iraqi security personnel and then handing over the security responsibility to these Iraqis progress will be made and the truth will out.

I read what I believe to be a prescient post from Omar at Iraq the Model titled “Interior ministry presses torture charges against senior officers.” It is about an article in the Washington Post describing the arrest of 57 Interior Ministry employees. To quote Omar

“Building rule of law is much more of a difficult task than breaking the law is and the transformation from jungle law to civil law requires patience and determination.
What makes me feel good about this is that we're now moving to prosecute the criminals of the present just like we prosecuted the criminals of the past.”

Unfortunately it is the soldiers on the ground and their loved ones that will bear the brunt of this short term blow back and my heart goes out to those that will suffer this burden.

As for the larger War I fear that it has had the opposite effect on our safety here on the home front and the rest of humanity. Any significant, by this I mean of the scale of 9/11 of greater, attack on the home front now would drive many if not most Democrats, all but the most loony left, into the war camp. Minor attacks might be pending and doable, as the left can successfully dismiss them as only requiring a law enforcement approach and discount their having any real significance or meaning to the broader War. So if our enemies are smart, and I believe them to be, they will lay back as doing so lets time go to work in their favor. Time to regroup, time to recruit, time to train, time to plot and time to rearm.

Posted by: Piscivorous | Nov 8, 2006 1:11:41 PM