Behind Bush's bluster is a bloody threat, a presidential threat of a sort this nation has never seen

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1090

The American Tragedy of Our Troops Held Hostage

by: GlennWSmith
Fri Aug 31, 2007 at 14:40:28 PM EDT

President Bush is holding our troops hostage and threatening them with death. Here is what he is saying to Congress:"Order me out of Iraq, and I will abandon the troops in the field. The blood of your children will be on your hands, not mine."

Every coffin that comes home shows he means business.

This is the ugly truth Congress wrestles with but will not name. Congress has been terrorized, like any family whose children are kidnapped and held hostage.

Vote to stop funding? Vote for an immediate start to withdrawal? American soldiers will die. As they have been dying. Bush knows he can blame Congress and the public's lack of "will" for the continued horror.

"They would not have died," he would say, "had the politicians in Washington not interfered with our commanders in the field."

This is Bush's threat. And everyone knows it, but few will talk about it. It is not easy to speak these truths about an American leader. But no other conclusion is possible. snip

If there has ever been a time for politics, this is it. Because behind Bush's bluster is a bloody threat, a presidential threat of a sort this nation has never seen.

Congress, of course, could simply do nothing and bring the stand-off to a head. Without new authorization and new funding, Bush might be forced to chart a new course or (again) defy the Constitution. There is plenty of money to effect a safe withdrawal. But Bush is unlikely to either order a safe withdrawal or admit defiance of the Constitution. He will simply let the blood flow. How many will die, like so many terror hostages of the past, before Congress approves more ransom money?

[ProfessorPlum]

1. This is why impeachment remains the only sane course of action

We need someone who can get the troops home, without delay.

[cali]

8. I'm all for impeachment but it's a mistake to

conflate it with ending the war. There's no reason to expect that the process of impeachment will effect bushco's war.

[leveymg]

11. We were on our way out of Iraq in January, and then someone convinced Dubya to dig his heals in.

Now, the only way we're going to end this war is to bring Bush-Cheney to an end.

They have left us no other choice.

[leveymg]

2. If someone kidnaps your kids, you do 1 of 3 things: 1) pay ransom; 2) call the cops; or 3)

hunt down the kidnappers yourself.

[WGS]

3. Military personnel

are not "kids" and they aren't being kidnapped. Let's try to keep it real, OK?

[leveymg]

4. No, they're hostages until they finally take matters into their own hands.

If the very institution that BushCo rode to power threw Dubya, Dick & the neocons onto their heads, that would be justice.

The OVP and EOP have already lost their stirrups, are hanging from underneath, and the horse is headed for the fence.

Welcome to DU.

[Dhalgren]

5. You have to grasp what is real, before you can "keep it" that way.

Bush is using the danger that the troops are in as leverage to get his way with the congress. Everyone with a tenth of a brain knows that Bush doesn't give two good fucks about the troops in Iraq - and even less about the Iraqis. He is using the threat of US troops deaths to get his way - that is not only contemptible and cowardly, it is actionable...

[NNN0LHI]

6. And all it would take was just a handful of Rethug Senators to stand with the Dems to end it

And we can't even get a few of them to do the right thing.

Don

[leveymg]

7. If only all the "D" stood with the Dems

Particularly, the leadership. I don't mind losing half as much as their never trying to change things.

[NNN0LHI]

9. The Dem Congress and leadership has done just fine as far as I am concerned

As far as I can tell they are doing everything they can do to change things.

And for that losing stuff I don't like losing with so much at stake.

Because we can't change things with an insane Rethug (they are all insane freaks) in the White House. I figured that out.

Don

[leveymg]

10. I think there are a lot of people around here who disagree with you on that.

But, I understand what you're saying. It's what I thought, also, until recently.
:hi:

I guess the thing that finally knocked me over the edge was Reid's statement that he would reintroduce the Senate FISA immunity measure after Dodd put a hold on it.

Nothing pisses me off more than the fact of no accountability, and to have the hopes for it taken away...

[NNN0LHI]

12. With all we have been through the Senate FISA immunity measure did it?

I can tell when you are kidding me.

:hi:

See you a little later I am getting hungry.

Don