Cut and Run - you bet: we're gonna CUT the crap and RUN this operation like it should have been all along.
An Iraqi defense ministry official said that the bodies of Menchaca
and Tucker showed signs of being tortured and that the men were "killed
in a barbaric way." The Mujahedeen Shura Council, an umbrella
organization of five insurgent groups led by al-Qaida in Iraq,
suggested in a Web statement that the men had been beheaded. The
statement could not be authenticated.
"It's very upsetting to me
that they would give you details of the torture, of the beheading,"
said Mario Vasquez, Menchaca's uncle.
Menchaca's mother, Maria Vasquez, answered her door in Brownsville
early Tuesday sobbing and unable to speak. She issued a statement
written in Spanish that said, "I am against the war and I feel very
hurt by what has happened to my son."
"The news is going to be heartbreaking for my family," Ken MacKenzie,
uncle of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, told NBC's "Today" show. "Because
the U.S. government did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid
for it with his life," he said. Missing Soldier's Uncle Criticizes U.S.
President Bush said this on Monday: "There will be no early withdrawal as long as we run the Congress and occupy the White House." Got political ego? At least we know the Republicans' priorities. Saving political face.
Stay the Course, or Cut and run - Why not Change the Course, before this Titanic hits the Iceberg?
Republicans want to sit and watch. That's the Republican plan. Sit
and watch (see update) until 2009, but passing the buck won't get the
job done.
"Cut and run" may be cute and catchy, but some slogan to smear Democratic leaders doesn't help our troops or the Iraqi people.
It's time for a referendum on the Republican "leadership" on Iraq. Democratic Senators John Kerry and Russ Feingold have joined together to demand it. Levin and Reed have another way, but all Democrats want a change in course. Even Joe Biden is demanding no permanent bases in Iraq.
Bush and the Republicans say "stay the course," but offer no course
on which we can build. American troops in limbo, living a life of no
way out or through is not a course, it is a suicide mission for
warriors. We've got the dead, the wounded and critically maimed to
prove it.
Kerry's got it right, "lie and die" is how he described Republicans. If you've got a better one, let's hear it.
In terms of domestic politics, this isn't that complicated. President
Bush wants to stay in Iraq for at least three more years. Members of
his party in Congress agree with him. They don't have a plan. That's
where to make this argument because very few people in this country
think we should keep our troops there for another three years with our
current policy.
He doesn't have a plan for what to do in Iraq so he wants to keep
troops there for the rest of his presidency. That's his plan: stay long
enough that it becomes someone else's problem.
We have nothing to gain from staying. Saddam is gone and there are no
WMDs in Iraq. All we're doing now is catching bullets as Shi'ites and
Sunnis kill each other. The story of Iraq may one day have a happy
ending, but it doesn't have anything to do with us anymore. Staying is
the only way to guarantee we keep losing and our soldiers keep dying.