Thursday, August 25, 2005

Why do 2 out of 5 Americans still support Bush and the Iraq War?

Most of us who opposed the Iraq War from the outset are entirely confused now that it looks like a disaster on many levels and 40% of Americans are still in the Bush camp.

Are we waiting for a miracle? All reports I read, even David Brooks, at least admit that the president's policy is blowing it-- not the least to say that the entire notion was wrongheaded from the beginning:
  1. When Shannon and I visited Turkey before the war, a family in the southeast corner told us that IRAQ was the most secular muslim country in the region. Soudi Arabia and Iran are the most hardcore muslim countries.
  2. Bush didnt' really Give Peace a Chance. I understand when Christopher Hitchenssays: "the root falicy that is being put around 'if we weren't mean to them they wouldn't be mean with us' -- absolute bullshit". Got it. -- BUT-- is violence really the answer? [insert john lennon here]. Seriously, isn't this at least a moment to give pause and reflect on what we have learned from Dr. King, from eastern religions, taoism, buddhism, from common sense-- from our experience as humans living our lives -- that "loving our neighbor" is more likely to create a happy outcome?
When Bamuthi and Erica visited, he prompted required reading: Bill Moyers speech at Harvard. Moyers broke down Bush's objective: The religious right basically doesn't care about the environment or the rest of the world hating us because the APOCOLYPSE is coming.

So are we waiting for a miracle? Are all of us? Do we think this thing is just going to work itself out?

Iraq is a mess. Comedy Central is the leading opponent (gawd just wait 'til how many history books corner Jon Stewart as the only vocal dissenter) to the war.

The confusing 40% still still support Bush. They've been called Jackonians by FRANCIS FUKUYAMA in Invasion of the Isolationists -- but it doesn't make sense:

"President Bush's strategy on Iraq is un-American."

"Much has been made of the emergence of "red state" America, which supposedly constitutes the political base for President Bush's unilateralist foreign policy, and of the increased number of conservative Christians who supposedly shape the president's international agenda. But the extent and significance of these phenomena have been much exaggerated."

"Are we failing in Iraq? That's still unclear. The United States can control the situation militarily as long as it chooses to remain there in force, but our willingness to maintain the personnel levels necessary to stay the course is limited."

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