[TommyJefferson]

I'm a republican. In 2003 I knew there would be civil war in Iraq.

Since I'm a conservative, I was against the Iraq war from day one.

[coyote]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TommyJefferson', 'I')'m a republican. In 2003 I knew there would be civil war in Iraq.

Since I'm a conservative, I was against the Iraq war from day one.

[LadyRuby]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bobcousins', 'D')o you guys think that Congress will support a war with Iran?

There is a steady drumbeat of war that is so similar to the lead up to Iraq, it gives me a horrible feeling in my stomach. If our leader and your leader team up again and decide "what the hell, let's go down in flames. God made us do it", I hate to think what may happen.

Maybe this time I really should go on the "No war on Iran" march.

[Tyler_JC]

The following Republican Senators are in serious trouble.


Name_________approval rating
James Inhofe 45%
Conrad Burns 45%
Jim Bunning 45%
Wayne Allard 45%
Mel Martinez 46%
John Cornyn 46%

The list of GOP Senators with approval ratings below 50% is impressive. 14 by last count. If the Democrats are able to pick up all of those seats...forget it. We will be looking at a lame duck president.

To be fair, there are 5 or 6 Democratic Senators with simillarly low approval ratings, but even if those ones swtich parties too...the Republican Party is still in trouble.

But the good news is that most of those unpopular Senators aren't up for re-election any time soon!

The pictures looks much worse in the House of Representatives (where elections are re-elected every 2 years and there is a far greater connection to the people).

"37%: percentage of people in the latest poll who approve of the way Congress is doing its job"
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington ... poll_x.htm

OUCH.

Not looking good.

[TommyJefferson]

Conservative republicans in Texas are angry with Senator John Cornyn for supporting Bush's open borders policy.

Corporate interests are flooding the US with cheap labor. Although this leftist article explains why, it is clueless about what is a "conservative". Fortunately, we have more votes than the corporations.

Real conservatives don't believe in empire building. I wish we could run all these stupid war-mongers back to the democratic party where they came from.

[UIUCstudent01]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TommyJefferson', 'R')eal conservatives don't believe in empire building. I wish we could run all these stupid war-mongers back to the democratic party where they came from.

[Kickinthegob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bobcousins', 'T')here is a steady drumbeat of war that is so similar to the lead up to Iraq, it gives me a horrible feeling in my stomach. If our leader and your leader team up again and decide "what the hell, let's go down in flames. God made us do it", I hate to think what may happen.

Maybe this time I really should go on the "No war on Iran" march.

[gg3]

This is the point where honest conservatives and honest liberals recognize that they agree and have common cause. It may be a bit uncomfortable, and there may still be some mutual barbs traded back and forth, but the underlying consensus is there and growing.

= One, we never should have gone into Iraq. Yes Saddam was a monster. But as in Yugoslavia, the big monster was keeping a lid on the numerous smaller monsters that were waiting to come out of the woodwork. In any case the war was militarily imprudent: the Iraq threat was well-contained with inspections and surveillance, including no doubt an NRO bird parked above to keep the live video flowing. But, having gone to war, it should at least have been managed competently. It has not been. The incompetence is second only to the imprudence.

= Two, we have lost moral legitimacy. Historically, torture has occasionally happened in the heat of battlefield conditions; but the switch to torture-as-policy is the moral equivalent of selling one's soul to the Devil. Historically, illegal acts on the part of government were cause for shame; the switch to overt boasting about it (standing up for broad-spectrum surveillance in violation of FISA) is the moral equivalent of doing one's Devil-worship in public.

= Three, we have seen the powers of government grow in a manner that is only exceeded by the growth of the national debt. Both of these, the excesses of power and the financial recklessness, stand in sharp opposition to everything that responsible liberals and conservatives believe in. And while we may in normal times argue about whether this or that piece of regulatory legislation or spending authorization is really necessary, there is no question that the excesses we see today are truly beyond the pale.

And so we join hands across the aisle and seek to revive the American tradition of "throwing the rascals out." I for one will welcome the day when the Republicans put forward another Eisenhower, the Democrats put forward another JFK, and the national spotlight can be focused on our best potential rather than our basest instincts.

[LadyRuby]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('gg3', 'T')his is the point where honest conservatives and honest liberals recognize that they agree and have common cause. It may be a bit uncomfortable, and there may still be some mutual barbs traded back and forth, but the underlying consensus is there and growing.

= One, we never should have gone into Iraq. Yes Saddam was a monster. But as in Yugoslavia, the big monster was keeping a lid on the numerous smaller monsters that were waiting to come out of the woodwork. In any case the war was militarily imprudent: the Iraq threat was well-contained with inspections and surveillance, including no doubt an NRO bird parked above to keep the live video flowing. But, having gone to war, it should at least have been managed competently. It has not been. The incompetence is second only to the imprudence.

= Two, we have lost moral legitimacy. Historically, torture has occasionally happened in the heat of battlefield conditions; but the switch to torture-as-policy is the moral equivalent of selling one's soul to the Devil. Historically, illegal acts on the part of government were cause for shame; the switch to overt boasting about it (standing up for broad-spectrum surveillance in violation of FISA) is the moral equivalent of doing one's Devil-worship in public.

= Three, we have seen the powers of government grow in a manner that is only exceeded by the growth of the national debt. Both of these, the excesses of power and the financial recklessness, stand in sharp opposition to everything that responsible liberals and conservatives believe in. And while we may in normal times argue about whether this or that piece of regulatory legislation or spending authorization is really necessary, there is no question that the excesses we see today are truly beyond the pale.

And so we join hands across the aisle and seek to revive the American tradition of "throwing the rascals out." I for one will welcome the day when the Republicans put forward another Eisenhower, the Democrats put forward another JFK, and the national spotlight can be focused on our best potential rather than our basest instincts.

[TommyJefferson]

Well said again GG3.

Last week in the Texas repubilcan primary I voted against every incumbent on the ticket.

My votes were over-ridden by the party faithful, but next election I'll try to persuade even more people to throw the rascals out.

[Magus]

Article from San Francisco Chronicle: Ordinary Iraqi families getting ready to fight--They're stockpiling weapons, food and fuel

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')aghdad -- Om Hussein, wrapped in her black abaya, lists the contents of the family's walk-in storage closet: three 175-pound cases of rice, two 33-pound cases of cooking fat, six cases of canned tomatoes, three crates of assorted legumes, a one-month supply of drinking water, frozen chicken livers in the freezer. And in the garage, jerry cans filled with fuel are piled floor to ceiling.

Om Hussein, who was reluctant to give her full name, and her Shiite family are preparing for war. They've stocked up on food. They bought a Kalashnikov rifle and a second car -- so that there is space for all 13 members of their extended family should they need to flee in a hurry.

"We are afraid of what will happen in the coming days," she says. "Maybe there will be a monthlong curfew, or maybe fighting in the streets will force my family to stay in the house for days at a time."

In the past week, President Bush has tried to assure Americans that Iraq has stepped back from the brink of civil war. "Iraqis have shown the world they want a future of freedom and peace," he told the Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Monday.

Few Iraqis, however, share Bush's view that the crisis has been averted. They are readying themselves for the worst, fleeing likely flash points, stockpiling weapons and basic foodstuffs, barricading their neighborhoods, and drawing lines in the sand delineating Sunni and Shiite territory.

[Chocky]

Smart people. Interesting that even under Saddam every family could own one AK-47 rifle.

[RonMN]

Funny. I remember at the beginning of gulf war 1 (under bush senior) that sadam threatened death to anybody "hoarding" food or other vital supplies. Now they have the freedom to stock up on such goods.

[rogerhb]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('RonMN', 'N')ow they have the freedom to stock up on such goods.

[directinfo]

Behind the stories of very personalized death and civil war (click for today's latest in NY Times) in Iraq, we can see the truth revealing itself to us. None of us dare whisper this fearsome truth because to do so may bring the reality into our unprepared mind. If you dare whisper, you say: "Iraq is the training ground. We are the target."

The US is preparing for how to consolidate power when the peak oil dieoff starts in earnest. Look: 14 permanent and hardened military bases and fomenting racial strife towards an instigated civil war. What else do you need to see?

This is the future of America if we don't get a clue and stop this madness of "pre-emptive war". We are killing Iraq for oil and this crime will come back to haunt us. There is no "support the troops" about occupying a country and turning it into civil war. We will pay for this.

Help me get the word out.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArkBuilders_org/

[zoidberg]

LOL. Yep. Splitting a country along racial/sectarian lines and starting a civil war sounds like an excellent way to manage post peak chaos.

Good lord. I think some rationing along with central oversight to ensure that resources are allocated according to their long term utility instead of their short term profit is probably what most governments are preparing for. Iraq is the tail end of of long convoluted process that began with the industrial era. IMHO hardly the harbinger of things to come.

Peak Oil != Armageddon.

[cynthia]

There are no more excuses! Good, albeit difficult posting, directinfo. The US people have been insulated from much of this-at their peril.
People! please read Robert Fisk's (http://www.robert-fisk.com/) non-imbedded reportings from Iraq.
The hardest part is accepting how natural resource wars kill innocent people who get in the way of securing said resources.
Yet we muddle along with gold prices, natural gas depletions, bird flu and other intangible thoughts to avoid dealing with the absolute truth that our tax dollars are killing those unfortunate enough to live in an oil-bearing region.
I feel SICK.
cynthia

[lutherquick]

No worries folks, the US will fail, the US is failing...
The track record is a clear indication of the future...

There will be peace as the world slides down peak oil's down slope...
As long as American hegemony continues to inflate and fail, as long as America war machine continues to fail, as long as American foriegn policy continues to be so delusional... then America will fail to annex the world.

Time will tell, but my guess, is that Bush is as sure about American future as he is about wmd or peace in Iraq.

[Chocky]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'f')omenting racial strife towards an instigated civil war

[directinfo]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Chocky', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'f')omenting racial strife towards an instigated civil war