[Shuttle Shucker]

Can you believe how much the national debt increased under GOP rule? http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/opd/opdpenny.htm I'm not persuaded that the war needed to cost that much. Either way, cutbacks are needed and the Democrats can now get to deal with making or ignoring them, just as Bill Clinton and a Democrat Congress had to either punt or run with the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico at the end of the Cold War. At least we can rejoice that Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney's now out of office and forced to look for a real job in Atlanta:

[SmithL]

Cinnamon Stillwell Ping

FReepMail me if you want on, or off this low-volume Ping list.

[kingu]

Lots of words to say that the Left ran right, and the Right ran nowhere.

[SteveH]

The Bush administration shares the blame for the growing impatience with the war by not fully explaining the stakes to the American people. By focusing on Iraq and denying the civilizational and religious connection to the wider Muslim world, President Bush failed to fully rally the post-9/11 public for the coming conflict.

I think this is a bit self delusional. My own sense is that many middle-of-the-road folks who would normally be conservative and normally support a conservative president feel that the president went off on an ego trip with Iraq and did not have an end-game plan. That was a concern of Iraq war cautionaries from the outset, IIRC. More recently, word has begun to filter back-- like it or not-- that the Iraqi police and army have been observed to be less than effective, just as cautionaries had warned about earlier. Yet the official reaction seems often to have been marred by pride and scorn in place of concern. This arrogant style perhaps further alienates those who really might otherwise go either way on the issue.

It makes me wonder if alternatives to the current postwar plan were fully explored (if it is presumed that the initial decision to go in was fully justified, which is another nagging question), such as dividing Iraq into two or three nations... though perhaps that is overly naiive... alternatively, I could be all wrong on all of this (smile)...