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Is Bush losing ground? He is already seen as not a good
steward of the economy. Now those
who opposed the Iraq war are now being joined by some of those who did. A new Newsweek poll
indicates that for the first time since 9/11,
more registered voters would prefer to elect someone else than Bush in 2004. See the following two links for that
reference. In the case of failing
foreign policy and failed economic policy, When is Enough Enough? @ http://www.msnbc.com/news/956458.asp?0cv=KB20 Fineman:
Tangled in his flight suit @ http://www.msnbc.com/news/956613.asp?0bl=-0 Expect
diehards to circle the wagons and moderates to be emboldened. Maybe the public should be considering
a few questions, like are we in better fiscal and economic shape that we were
in 2000? Is the country safer
today than it was 9/12/01? Are you
comfortable with the direction that the country seems to be going? Isn’t
it interesting how those neoconservative pundits who were arguing for Pax
Americana and against the UN, urging the Bush2 administration on its unilateral
ambitions, are now insisting that the US must lean hard on its allies for help
in Iraq and elsewhere? This is
what Krauthammer says in the latest Time magazine: “Which
brings us to the third point, the hardball. If the world will not help us in
Iraq, we should ostentatiously announce a global reconsideration of all U.S.
military commitments in humanitarian ventures. Why are thousands of U.S. troops
sitting in the Balkans, doing a job the French and Germans and others who won't
lift a finger for us in Iraq can very well do themselves? Our soldiers in Iraq
are tired. They need relief. That relief can come from newly trained Iraqi
forces, who would be helped by international recognition of the provisional
government working with us. Relief can come from other countries' troops, hence
a U.N. resolution explicitly granting such authorization. And relief can come
from rotating to Iraq U.S. soldiers on social-work duty elsewhere — hence the
threat to withdraw from those commitments if the world will not help us
otherwise. If the world wants us
to play God, especially in godforsaken places, it had better help. We cannot
tend to every sparrow in the forest. Not even God does.” See Help Wanted @ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101030901-477929,00.html Where’s the mea culpa? The neoconservative hardsell was the America was destined to
secure and maintain her fate as the world’s preeminent superpower, that we
could and should “do it all”.
Where is that confidence now?
Is the journey too long and not glorious enough? Do the words “deficit”,
“draft” and “depression” keep extremists awake at night now? Who pays the price for this
arrogance? Which is
what Zakaria writes in Newsweek’s new issue, What’s Plan B? The cover story, What we should do now @ http://www.msnbc.com/news/956615.asp?0dm=N21KN. Lead quotes read: Washington’s
plan A clearly isn’t working. The
fighting is far from over…but there’s no walking away…It is time for America to
recognize that the occupation of Iraq needs fixing. This has been a massive enterprise undertaken with little
planning and extreme arrogance.” - KWC |
