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For a variety of reasons, I'm not going to post it here until we publish it at truthout. I need to keep a lid on it until post time. When the link is ready, I will put it up here (provided I am not covering a protest or inside the convention or something). Here's a bit of it, tho, still rough:
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Someone forgot to get Rudy Giuliani the memo about the Terror War now
being unwinnable. "We'll see an end to global terrorism,'' he said from
the convention podium on Monday night. "It may seem very difficult and a
long way off. It may even seem idealistic to say that. But it may not be
as far away and as idealistic as it seems.''
Never mind Rudy’s assertion that Bush “can see through time” in the same
speech. Between Bush’s temporal abilities and his armchair-to-armchair
relationship with the Almighty, one might have assumed that he’d have
stumbled to this wisdom many moons ago. Of course a war against terror
cannot be won. Terrorism is a weapon. How do you wage war against a
weapon? Shall we next have a war against bazookas and slingshots?
One defeats terrorism by undermining the conditions which breed
terrorists. Economic inequality, crushing poverty, shattered educational
infrastructures, rampant violence and a total lack of hope are the soil in
which suicide bombers germinate. Until you get rid of those, you will
always have terrorism. Period.
(snip)
It is too bad that we had to grind through three years, a catastrophic
invasion of Iraq, 976 dead American soldiers, almost 7,000 grievously
wounded American soldiers, more than 10,000 dead Iraqi civilians and God
only knows exactly how many billions of dollars before Mr. Bush arrived at
this conclusion.
It is too bad that Bush’s Iraq adventure has created economic inequality,
crushing poverty, shattered educational infrastructures, rampant violence
and a total lack of hope among the people of that nation. If he has
suddenly come around to a new mindset on how to deal with terrorism, he
will have to start by cleaning up the terrorist mass-production line he
has activated there.
But, of course, he won’t. Soon after Bush’s comment to Lauer, his
campaign spokespeople came boiling out of the woodwork to clarify that the
President didn’t really mean to say what he said, and that despite his new
vision on the matter of dealing with terrorism, there will be absolutely
no policy changes in the way the Terror War is being waged. In other
words, folks, ignore the Republican candidate. He’s just flapping his
lips.
Indeed. The next day, at a Tuesday address to the American Legion, Bush
decided to reverse field yet again and declare that we will, in fact, win
the War on Terror. Presidential mouthpiece Scott McLellan said, to
clarify the previous clarification of the previous clarification, "Not
only are we winning it, but we will win it."
(snip)
Hopefully, none of the troops over there were able to watch the coverage
of the Republican convention on Monday night. Salted through the audience
were a number of conventioneers wearing band-aids with little purple
hearts on them. This was, of course, an extension of the gutter war being
waged against Democratic candidate John Kerry’s Vietnam record.
Some 3,700 Purple Heart medals have been awarded to soldiers fighting in
Operation Iraqi Freedom, with more than 3,000 still wending through the
process before they can be pinned to the breasts of soldiers missing a
chunk of their body. The message emanating from Madison Square Garden is
obvious: Not only is the President blitheringly unclear on what is
supposedly the central mission of his administration, but his own
supporters have nothing but disdain for anyone wounded in combat.
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