A Herd of Liars

Last night around eight PM my doorbell rang and I opened the door to find Max Angst.
“Art, I have to talk to someone. I’m really pissed off. Can I come in?”
“Of course, Max. Come in. What’s the matter?”
He came in sat in the parlor and I got both of us a Sam Adams. Then he said.
“Art, I’m sure you’re aware of the democrats bills in both houses of Congress calling for the withdrawal of our troops from Iraq. I have here an article form the International Herald Tribune that says the withdrawal claims are a lot of crap.”
“ That is bad news, Max. Can you give me the details? Who wrote the article?”
“The Article is by retired Brigadier General Kevin Ryan, who is a senior fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.” The bills have two kinds of provisions: one kind is supposedly aimed reversing the current surge, the other sets dates for withdrawal of our troops. The first requires that army units have 365 days at home before they can be redeployed and Marine units have 210 days. Also units deployment could not be extended beyond one year for army units and seven months for marines. But, the bill allows the President to waive these restrictions in the interest of national security. Which allows Bush to do whatever he wants; we all know Bush past performance in justifying his most obnoxious actions. This whole thing is smoke and mirrors.
“Geese, Max, that stinks. What about the setting of dates?”
“They give a starting date for withdrawal of March 2008 and its completion by August 2008. The House bill requires immediate withdrawal if the President can’t certify that Iraq or the United States are meeting the benchmarks in the war. We all know what Bush will do. Also, both the Senate and the House bills allows some troops to remain if they’re performing one of three specific missions: protecting American citizens, facilities, or forces: combating Al Qaeda or International terrorism and training Iraqi security forces. General Ryan says this allows as many troops as we currently have in Iraq to remain there. Again smoke and mirrors!!! These bills do allow US forces to stay out of the Shiite Sunni civil war that going on. But when they’re training security forces it often means being embedded with the Iraqis, which could get our people into civil war battles. Fighting terrorists is battle action and so is protecting our civilians, facilities and forces. Where then is the withdrawal? Are not the Democrats lying to us just as the Republicans have been? Art, we all have to write to Pelosi, Reid and the rest of them and let them know we’re on to them and that we expect the conference bill that goes up to the President be free of smoke and mirrors.”
We talked for over an hour and killed the six pack of Sam. Today, I’m writing this blog and then I’ll write to Pelosi, Reid, Durbin and Obama. I’m beginning to feel strongly that we need a third party
.