Time for an Iraq Accounting (past time!!)

[rodeodance]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/27/AR2005052701284.html

Time for an Iraq Accounting

By Jim Hoagland

Sunday, May 29, 2005; Page B07

American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan deserve the nation's thanks and respect this Memorial Day. But they deserve more. They deserve a clearer, more realistic explanation from President Bush of their strategic mission, and they deserve directives that show them precisely how to accomplish it. The American public also needs explanations and, yes, directives. The White House seems to underestimate the fraying of national support that is occurring for the U.S. military presence in Iraq and, to a lesser extent, in Afghanistan. Freedom may be on the march, but Americans need to be told more specifically and persuasively how U.S. and allied combat deaths abroad advance that march now, not years from now.

A similar initiative is needed on homeland defense. Confusion and drift mark public understanding of how individuals, communities and the nation as a whole should respond to terrorist strikes on U.S. soil. Citizens can learn more about how cities would be evacuated or other responses to a future Sept. 11-type event from watching doomsday television dramas such as "24" than from the administration.


A refocusing of the war against terrorism needs to come in several forms, from high-profile presidential speeches to secret strategy documents that will shape campaign orders to troops in the fields.

The effort should start with Bush's public declarations during this year's commemoration of American valor on the battlefield. His visionary rhetoric about freedom and American values helped rally the nation during the shocks of the past four years. The reassuring approach, he can argue, has kept public anxiety to a minimum.

[democrat in Tallahassee]

1. visionary rhetoric? gag me.

visionary propoganda, perhaps is a better description

[indepat]

2. Americans will be given an accounting when they need one

[punpirate]

3. So, in essence, Hoagland...

... says we just need a better explanation, and everything will be fine. Tripe.

How about starting with an accurate accounting of how the money's been spent? That should get the conservatives pissed.

Then, how about an accounting of the lies the administration told to suck the public into supporting a war of empire as if it were a war to repel imminent threat and to inflict retribution for 9/11? That should get everyone else plenty pissed, too.

How about an accurate accounting, and not a better snow-job?