Thomas Friedman, author of The World is Flat and New York Times columnist, has finally decided that the perpetual six month waiting period has finally expired in Iraq, after a measly 7 FUs. Friedman called for a deadline on The Colbert Report.

Sadly, Friedman hasn’t been the only one to invoke the FU, which in practice sounds very much like a child attempting to stay up past his bedtime (“C’mon Mom. Just five more minutes. I’m almost done.”).

I heard this on my way to work this morning, and thought it was very interesting.

The number of Vietnam veterans seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder has been steadily rising since the 1990s, and the rate has spiked since the United States prepared to invade Iraq in 2003.

…

For Jim Hale, a Vietnam veteran who ran electrical generators on Phu Quoc Island for the U.S. military, the Iraq war is almost like “watching a rerun” of the Vietnam War.

Apparently, watching this “rerun” of Vietnam is the tipping point for those on the edge of having PTSD, which is a testament to not only the similarities between these wars, but also the lasting damage it can have on our own soldiers, fighting an unwinnable war in an incredible hostile environment, where friend and foe minglle interchangeably.  The article concludes with a horror story from the Vietnam War, as told by Hale, which should be a reminder why these wars are so terrible for everyone.

Hale remembered what they thought was enemy fire. He remembered firing his M-16 into the jungle. And he remembered finding out it was civilians — not Viet Cong soldiers — he and his buddies had shot.

…

“I couldn’t look,” Hale said. “I told myself I’m here to guard, I’m not here to watch this happen. I’m going to turn around the face the dark. I don’t have to see it.”

I’ve been trying to stay away from all commentary about the MoveOn betray-us ad, mainly because I thought it was a stupid ad to begin with that just served to lower the discourse about Iraq for a long time, but also because of the over-hyped, unbelievably typical conservative response.

But anyway, I think that David Shuster sums everything up very nicely when talking with Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

Shuster: “But don’t you understand, the problems that a lot of people would have, that you’re so focused on an ad — when was the last time a New York Times ad ever killed somebody?

He also challenged the Congresswoman  to name the last soldier from her district who was killed in Iraq, to which she drew a blank, which is utterly disgraceful.  I mean the least you can do after continually voting to keep our soldiers in harms way is to know the names of those who were sacrificed.

Pitiful.

The NYT published a scathing editorial of Congress today, that slammed both sides of the aisle.

If you were one of the Americans waiting for Congress, under Democratic control, to show leadership on the war in Iraq, the message from the Senate is clear: “Nevermind.” The same goes for those waiting for lawmakers to fix the damage done to civil liberties by six years of President Bush and a rubber-stamp Republican Congress.

The Democrats don’t have, or can’t summon, the political strength to make sure Congress does what it is supposed to do: debate profound issues like these and take a stand. The Republicans are simply not interested in a serious discussion and certainly not a vote on anything beyond Mr. Bush’s increasingly narrow agenda.

WHAM!

Democrats and Republicans who oppose the war have a duty to outline alternatives. Those who call for staying in Iraq have a duty to explain what victory means and how they plan to achieve it. Both sides are shirking an obligation to deal with issues that must be resolved right now, like the crisis involving asylum for Iraqis who helped the American occupation.

Seriously, what the hell are these guys doing? And by these guys I mean both Republicans and Democrats. The Republicans seem content on running in 2008 with Iraq center-stage, only they’re on the wrong side of debate. If they continue like this they are setting themselves up for a catastrophic defeat in 2008.

And the Democrats are still acting like a minority party. They’re acting like the polls are against them, or like they weren’t given a clear mandate in 2006. Just do what we put you there for! Don’t worry how it’s going to get spun! No one is listening to the President anymore! The President knows this, that’s why he sent a General to do his job for him. He thought maybe we’d believe a sexy guy in a uniform. Even that didn’t work. Stand up and fight!

[via DailyKos]

Well…finals came, everyone got busy, friends left…and the movement fizzled.

But, now I’m back. And I’m pissed again. Things got way too comfortable for me, but something new has roused that fightin’ spirit inside me. Iraq Moratorium is here, starting today. Iraq Moratorium sports some pretty serious sponsors, including Noam Chomsky, Danny Glover, and Howard Zinn. They’re message: Do something. Do anything, to show your opposition to this war.

The Iraq Moratorium movement is inspired in part by similar protests against the all-too-familiar Vietnam War. This has the potential to be extremely successful, and it just so happens that the call for action will repeat every third Friday of every month, dubbed Moratorium Day, which fits in very nicely with what we tried to do around here.

So, the movement’s back, now with a national following. So, go ahead, do something today. Wear a black armband, hang a sign at work, call a congressman, have a meet and greet. Anything to end this war.

P.S. – Expect a torrent of new posts, I’ve had some time to think about things and I have a lot to write about.

Firedoglake has a great post summing up what Congress has been doing the past week, and what the new supplemental will look like.

Unfortunately, it looks like President Bush is going to throw a tantrum again.  Unitary executive?  Not anymore, sir.  Not anymore.

VoteVets.org is launching a new ad campaign, the first of which features retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste.

VoteVets.org is today launching a three-ad series featuring three retired generals, two of whom were George Bush’s commanders on the ground. In the first ad, retired Major General John Batiste takes the President on, directly, when he says that he’s just ‘listening to commanders on the ground’ in Iraq. Batiste should know if the President is listening or not, since he was one of those commanders!

Next week, we’ll launch another ad with retired Major General Paul Eaton. And, after that, the campaign will wrap up with a powerful ad from former NATO Allied Supreme Commander, General Wesley Clark. Help keep our ads on the air. We’re trying to raise $100,000 to get these ads on nationally. Help us spread the word click here to donate.

These ads are a brilliant response to the Administrations latest talking point, which attempts to undermine Congress’ timeline bill by saying that it is against the will of our commanders on the ground.

[via Crooks and Liars]

A delegation of Republican Congressmen recently traveled to the White House to express concern over his handling of the war.

WASHINGTON, May 9—Moderate Republicans gave President Bush a blunt warning on his Iraq policy at a private White House meeting this week, telling the president that conditions needed to improve markedly by fall or more Republicans would desert him on the war.

The White House session demonstrated the grave unease many Republicans are feeling about the war, even as they continue to stand with the president against Democratic efforts to force a withdrawal of forces through a spending measure that has been a flash point for weeks.

Participants in the Tuesday meeting between Mr. Bush, senior administration officials and 11 members of a moderate bloc of House Republicans said the lawmakers were unusually candid with the president, telling him that public support for the war was crumbling in their swing districts.

Keep raising hell, America. Now’s the time to call your Congressman. Now’s the time to rally. Make these Republicans turn sooner than the fall. We need to get out now.

[via Truthdig]

It turns out that the Iraqi Parliament hates this war as much as the Dems in Congress do.

On Tuesday, without note in the U.S. media, more than half of the members of Iraq’s parliament rejected the continuing occupation of their country. 144 lawmakers signed onto a legislative petition calling on the United States to set a timetable for withdrawal, according to Nassar Al-Rubaie, a spokesman for the Al Sadr movement, the nationalist Shia group that sponsored the petition.

It’s a hugely significant development. Lawmakers demanding an end to the occupation now have the upper hand in the Iraqi legislature for the first time; previous attempts at a similar resolution fell just short of the 138 votes needed to pass (there are 275 members of the Iraqi parliament, but many have fled the country’s civil conflict, and at times it’s been difficult to arrive at a quorum)….

What does it say when the people we are supposed to be helping kick us out? Are you going to ignore this too, Mr. President?

[via DailyKos]

Well, he did it like he said he would. President Bush has begun the showdown. Thanks to Krugman, we have a whole new way of looking at this situation. An embattled President Bush, barricaded in the White House, desperately holding the troops hostage to prevent any control over the war from escaping him.

The people are against him.

His own party is distancing themselves from him.

We need Congress to stay strong. We need them to not back down from this juvenile effort to maintain a status quo that has never worked.

Call your Congressmen and tell them not to back down, and that you support a timeline for withdrawal.

Visit Congress.org to get all the info about your representatives/senators.