Smithers MINNEAPOLIS

Are you serious? Who cares?

Roll on 2006. Armstrong will have retired and the Tour de France will be interesting again.

1.Start with resisting Rove’s juicy bait.

2.Spell out the progressive philosophy of Total Security – keeping a strong military while also supporting job security, pension security, and security in the form of health and education. Attack Bush for giving up on homeland security, failing to protect cargo shipments, nuclear and chemical plants, and so on.

3.Point out Rove’s attempt to cover up Bush’s disaster in Iraq, and dwell on the public’s repudiation of the Bush policy for good reasons.

4.Keep pounding on the Downing Street memo, pointing out how Bush doctored intelligence and sent troops to war on false pretenses. Goad him about there being no WMD’s in Iraq, but plenty in North Korea.

5.Attack Bush for weakening our military and our economy, while strengthening al Qaeda, Point out that Bush is al Qaeda’s best friend, since he is their best recruiter.

6.Raise the stakes. Point out how the administration has been using 911 for their own political ends; of using the war in Iraq as a pretext to carry out a radical political agenda at home, and to get re-elected. Point out the immorality of using American and Iraqi lives for political ends.

7.Use the opportunity to brand the right wing as political fundamentalists, showing the intimate connections between Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism.

8.Raise the question of whether the brutality arising from the US occupation of Iraq led to an anti-US reaction in Iran and the squelching of democratic forces there – exactly the opposite of Bush’s predicted result.
In short, be pro-active, not reactive.

But the Democrats helped Rove get Iraq identified with the war on terror again, characterizing the Democrats as unpatriotic naïve weaklings, and setting the stage for Bush’s address on June 28, 2005, in which he followed Rove’s lead and again framed the Iraq War in terms of 911 and the war on terror. This time John Kerry stepped in to help Bush, basically supporting the president’s position but offering policy-wonk modifications. The message: Bush is basically right, except for some minor twiddles.

The Democrats can learn from Bush and Rove: Stick to your guns and stay the course.

The Army said it lowered the May target to “adjust for changing market conditions,” knowing that the difference will have to be made up in the months ahead.

Setting a deadline for withdrawal of those troops “would send the wrong message to the Iraqis, who need to know that America will not leave before the job is done,” Bush said tonight. But 45 seconds later, responding to calls for a troop increase, he cautioned, “Sending more Americans would undermine our strategy of encouraging Iraqis to take the lead in this fight.” Which is it, Mr. President? Does our military presence encourage Iraqi self-sufficiency or weaken it?

It’s time to make the Iraqis responsible for themselves. Bring the National Guard back so they can fulfill their responsibility to protect us here at home. Deploy more troops to Afghanistan to assure that country does not fall back into the hands of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Act now Mr. President and prevent the destruction of our all-volunteer military.

Something, or someone, starts screwing with the lights and the electricity on an ordinary suburban street. Within minutes, the residents have concluded that aliens from outer space have invaded. As alliances and rivalries dissolve and re-form with incredible swiftness, these neighbors accuse each other of collusion with the invaders. One of them finally starts shooting. The director pulls back to a nearby hill, where sit two real aliens, one of whom sagely reminds the other that there’s no need to actually attack any of these stupid humans — you can just scare them a little bit and then wait for them to tear themselves apart.

Think of how we responded — politically — to 9/11. First there was overwhelming non-partisanship. Years of deteriorating relations between the parties vanished; were even apologized for. And within three years the Republicans were insisting that a Democratic presidential victory would mean more terrorist attacks…

Substitute “terrorists” for “aliens” and Maple Street becomes the current American political scene. If there really is a functional al-Qaeda on the continent, it hasn’t needed to attack us since 9/11 because we’re all the Claude Akins and Jack Westons from the episodes accusing each other of collaboration.

In this vital area at least, the terrorists have already won. Nobody has to tear our country down; our leaders are doing it for them.

Special forces have “good intelligence” the al-Qaeda boss or a senior henchman is holed up in a Taliban enclave.

Two squadrons are on stand-by waiting for the go-ahead from reconnaissance troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

From the BBC, June 28:

A US military helicopter carrying troops has crashed in Afghanistan’s Konar province, the military has said.

It was unclear how many passengers were aboard the helicopter or why it crashed, but Afghan officials have said a rocket was fired at it.

A Taleban spokesman said the group had shot the helicopter down. The Pentagon has not commented on the claim.

NMMNB asks, are these two stories related?