The Iraq invasion has left an indelible stain on our nation's history.

[madfloridian]

My husband and I are in shock each day at the casual way this shock and awe war is talked about on our media. I read this diary today at Daily Kos, and it was a stunning thing.

The real story hehind today's helicopter crash in Iraq

I have not read Fiasco, so this was unbearable to read.

What wasn't widely understood at the time, or even now outside the military, is that the overcrowding at the prison... resulted directly from tactical decisions... most notably the 4th ID's Gen. Odierno. In the fall of 2003 they were stuffing Abu Ghraib with thousands of detainees, the majority of them bystanders caught up in the sweeps.

When Fast, the top Army intelligence officer in Iraq, questioned the 4th ID's indiscriminate approach, she was told by its intelligence officer that Odierno didn't care...

Brig. Gen. Karpinski, the reserve MP officer overseeing detentions across Iraq (said)..."The 82nd's interrogators did it right. They'd inveterview twenty-five and send three to me. Odierno's guys would grab twenty-five, and send twenty-five, or fifty, by including a bunch from his holding pen..."

When the young men left the vilages to hide, it was assumed they were guilty. And the strikes began.

HAMOUD, IRAQ — Bombers, fighter jets and attack helicopters unleashed a thundering attack today as U.S. and Iraqi troops closed in on a web of irrigation canals east of Baghdad where they thought Sunni Arab insurgents were massing.

The predawn strikes shook the ground and sent fireballs and thick smoke into the sky.

That is just a portion of the diary.

Yet as we near 2008 and the election for president, I think it will all boil down to this: the winner will be the one who speaks most cautiously, most carefully, most calmly, never gets angry, never shows emotion at this terrible war. They will never show alarm over the tragedy that was Katrina, and the people on the roof-tops waiting for help that never came.

It will be someone who never misspeaks, never acts human, never speaks the raw truth.

It happened in 03, 04, it has happened in 06 when Kerry told a joke without holding his mouth straight. It is going to happen in 08 to anyone who doesn't follow the protocol.

We are no safer with Saddam captured. Everyone knew it, but no one must ever have said it. We should not have Christianity taking over our politics, we should not have our politicians questioned on TV about their religious views...and then put down publicly for them.

Things are not going to change in 08.

Being politically correct with every word

DEAN: One thing I feel about religion, you have to be very careful not to be a hypocrite if you're a religious person. It is really tough to preach one thing and do something else. And I don't think you can do that.

As a matter of fact, if you're a religious person, you're a religious person. I don't think it ought to matter what religion you are.

So people who talk like that are what Jesus would call the Pharisees. And I think that's enough of that kind of stuff in the Republican Party. We are all in this together, whether you are a Christian, or a Jew or a Muslim or a Hindu. And there's plenty of all to go around in this country.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0312/08/ip.00.html

And Judy Woodruff was snide, and later he was attacked for those true statements, like it was a sin.

In the same interview, he was accused of being a draft dodger..did he have "twinges" over getting out of the war.

DEAN: I have a lot of twinge about the terrible policy that sent our young people to Vietnam for an exercise that turned out not to be justified, as we're doing right now in Iraq. Yes, I have twinges about that.

That was wrong also, wasn't said "properly" enough.

We are still in Iraq, people like General Odierno are still killing Iraqis and putting our troops in danger.

I fear the political positioning is about to start.

[aquart]

1. And it was so spanking clean before.

[madfloridian]

2. It was never so openly evil before.

This has played out on TV, the shock and awe from both Iraq wars, the torture at Abu Graib...all the bring it on crap. Right out in the open.

So arrogantly.

[GreenArrow]

3. all of which stresses

why it is imperative that Democrats find a nominee that (at least) did not vote in favor of this thing, and why they almost certainly will choose a nominee who did.

This country's foreign policy, regardless of party in power, has reeked for a long, long time, and at this point, it's pretty much spiritually, morally and strategically dead.

[madfloridian]

6. Or at the very least...

one who has come out honestly and openly repudiating their vote, not one who struggles to find words. That will make the difference with me.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

4. Agree

The outrage about this murderous travesty in Iraq needs to register much higher.

[madfloridian]

5. Saying the Iraqis need to "stand up" or "take responsibility" is indeed a sin

I have heard every one of our Democrats do it, trying to be politically correct. I have Governor Dean say it, I have heard many other outspoken Democrats say it....and of course the "president" thinks the Iraqis should thank us for what we have done to them.

I nearly throw up when I hear a statement like this. It is not just using Iraq as a political thing, it is in my mind a sin. To tell a country we have devastated to "stand up" and look out for themselves is an outrage.

I was just reading this from the blog which is referenced in the Daily Kos link above. It is called Iraq Nam.

Those Ingrate Iraqis

'HOW SHARPER than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!" complained Shakespeare's King Lear. But Lear didn't know from ingratitude. Think it stings to have a thankless child? Just try the sting of a thankless occupied nation!

President Bush on Sunday shared his lamentations on "60 Minutes," the modern equivalent of the storm-swept heath. Assuming the time-honored role of Fool, CBS' Scott Pelley asked the president, "Do you think you owe the Iraqi people an apology for not doing a better job?"

Bush retorted: "That we didn't do a better job, or they didn't do a better job?…. We liberated that country from a tyrant. I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude…. We've endured great sacrifice to help them…. wonder whether or not there is a gratitude level that's significant enough in Iraq."