[Peace-discuss] God Bless the Senate Republicans

[Morton K. Brussel]

Some truth, but mostly a lot of embittered nonsense here.  To condemn  
the Congressional Dems is one thing, but to praise the Repubs is  
another. --mkb


On Nov 17, 2007, at 8:56 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote:

> 	God Bless the Senate Republicans
> 	Sat, 2007-11-17 15:50
> 	By Mike Ferner
>
> Into every tragically depressing world situation some light must  
> shine if you wait long enough and the planets align just right.
>
> That glimmer of light came today from, of all places, the Death  
> Star known by many as Washington, D.C., from deep within one of the  
> most unfathomable quadrants of that bleakness – the chambers of the  
> United States Senate. Even more remarkably, it sprang from what  
> some consider a true black hole – the Republican caucus.
>
> But still it is light, and in these times we need to celebrate  
> every photon that comes our way.
>
> Today, the Senate voted 53-45, seven votes short of the 60 needed  
> to advance the bill, against a $50,000,000,000 “supplemental”  
> funding measure passed earlier this week by the Democratic- 
> controlled House of Representatives. What the Republicans objected  
> to was the limp, inconsequential troop withdrawal plan supported by  
> House and Senate Democrats – something that Groucho Marx would have  
> much more accurately termed, “a sham of a mockery of a sham.”
>
> The sham-of-a-mockery-of-a-withdrawal that the Republicans just  
> could not stomach required the president to pull U.S. troops out of  
> Iraq by December, 2008 – except, that is, for a few thousand to  
> guard the world’s largest embassy, another ten thousand or so to  
> train Iraqi armed forces, another ten thousand or so to protect  
> U.S. citizens in Iraq including those pillars of the community from  
> Blackwater, Inc., and another ten thousand or so that would be  
> stationed “just beyond the horizon” ready to squash any resistance  
> to the Iraqi government we leave behind.
>
> This was the “withdrawal” plan the Democrats wanted in exchange for  
> another 50 billion dollars to continue the war. To paraphrase the  
> late Republican Senator Everett Dirksen: “Even though the dollar is  
> rapidly going down the toilet, pretty soon you’re talking some  
> serious money here.”
>
> To the Senate Republicans I send a warm “thank you” for killing a  
> $50,000,000,000 cash infusion into this tragic, illegal war.
>
> To the scores of peace activists around the country preparing to  
> occupy their U.S. Senators’ local offices to press them to vote  
> against more war funding I say, “Declare victory in this round. And  
> get 10 friends to occupy those offices with you in February, when  
> the Democrats will feel compelled to bail out Bush again.”
>
> To MoveOn.org and similar groups whose main purpose in life is  
> toadying up to the Democratic Party, I say, “Spare us your  
> mobilizations of well-meaning citizens to bombard the airwaves and  
> street corners with a ‘Damn the Republicans for voting against a  
> timetable to end the war’ message. Leave the internet lines open  
> for more sincere emails like Nigerian business opportunities and  
> penis patches.”
>
> And to anyone who thinks this too cynical or too hard on our last,  
> best hope, the Congressional Democrats, I commend this pompous,  
> arrogant, condescending quote dripping with hubris from a leading  
> Senate liberal, Carl Levin (D-MI), during today’s Senate debate:  
> “We need to do more than say to the Iraqis that our patience has  
> run out and that they need to seize the opportunity that has been  
> given them…Their dawdling will only end when they have no choice.”
>
> Yes, it’s quite an opportunity we’ve given the Iraqis, Senator  
> Levin…but then they are such an ungrateful, dawdling lot.
>
> ###
>
> Mike Ferner is a freelance writer from Ohio and author of “Inside  
> the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq.”
>
> http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/28791
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