There Was Great Stuff In The New York Times Yesterday

I found this op-ed to be particularly good. It was written by several U.S. soldiers currently serving in Iraq and is a must-read.

The soldiers' piece in The Times should remind Democrats that the U.S. is not "at war" in Iraq. The "war," at least as far as the U.S. is concerned, ended over four years ago. What we are doing over there now is simply occupying the country. In fact, the Democrats should always refer to the situation over there as either "the Iraq Debacle" or "the Iraq Occupation," and should never call it the Iraq "War," unless they are referring specifically to the Iraqi civil war.

Frank Rich's "He Got Out While the Getting Was Good" is also worth a look (thanks for the link, Slic[k]). Rich's piece reminded me how fortuitous Kerry's loss in 2004 turned out to be. Had Kerry won, the Extreme Right would not be as demoralized as it is now. Iraq would have quickly turned into Kerry's problem (after all -- he did vote to authorize Bush's invasion), and the recession we are about to experience would have happened on Kerry's watch instead of on Bush's. The Democrats can still blow it pretty easily -- and it wouldn't surprise me if they did -- but things are really looking up for them right now.

And who do the Democrats have to thank for all of this? Well, Karl Rove of course (with a little help from Dick Cheney).

One of these days, most Americans will realize that radical right-wing extremists -- while possessing great skill at stealing elections, smearing people, and generally being Christo-fascist assholes -- really have no talent for governing.