Sunday Morning; The media catches up to the public.

BUSH WARS;
the media begins to awaken from it's stupor!

NYTIMES EDITORIAL CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL!!!

It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit.

Like many Americans, (not MOST Americans, though) we have put off that conclusion, waiting for a sign that President Bush was seriously trying (working hard?) to dig the United States out of the disaster he created by invading Iraq without sufficient cause, (so, like we all knew, Joe Wilson was right all along, will the NYTimes staff write an editorial exonorating him once and for all...) in the face of global opposition, and without a plan to stabilize the country afterward.

At first, we believed that after destroying Iraq’s government, army, police and economic structures, the United States was obliged to try to accomplish some of the goals Mr. Bush claimed to be pursuing, chiefly building a stable, unified (Halliburton/KBR managed) Iraq. When it became clear that the president had neither the vision nor the means to do that, we argued against setting a withdrawal date while there was still some chance to mitigate the chaos that would most likely follow.

While Mr. Bush scorns deadlines, he kept (and keeps) promising breakthroughs — after elections, after a constitution, after sending in thousands more troops. But those milestones came and went without any progress toward a stable, democratic Iraq or a path for withdrawal. It is frighteningly clear that Mr. Bush’s plan is to stay the course as long as he is president and dump the mess on his successor.

Whatever his cause was, it is lost. (...unless, of course, you're a Halliburton executive, raking in all that no-bid cash, then you might consider the Iraq war an unmitigated success!)

The political leaders Washington has backed are incapable of putting national interests ahead of sectarian score settling. The security forces Washington has trained behave more like partisan militias. Additional military forces poured into the Baghdad region have failed to change anything.

Continuing to sacrifice the lives and limbs of American soldiers is wrong.

The war is sapping the strength of the nation’s alliances and its military forces. It is a dangerous diversion from the life-and-death struggle against terrorists. It is an increasing burden on American taxpayers, and it is a betrayal of a world that needs the wise application of American power and principles.

A majority of Americans reached these conclusions months (how about "years") ago. (...the media says "months ago" because they are a couple years behind the REAL public opinion) Even in politically polarized Washington, positions on the war no longer divide entirely on party lines. When Congress returns this week, extricating American troops from the war should be at the top of its agenda. (a few years late and a few dollars richer, the NYTimes does the right thing)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/08/opinion/08sun1.html?ex=1341547200&en=48e1d6f4c885ef0a&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

Plamegate swings open ever wider;
Thanx for the link to SusanUNPC at Larry Johnson's "No Quarter"

Outing Valerie Plame aided our enemies
By Bob Ewegen, Denver Post Columnist
July 6, 2007

"After 44 years in journalism, I don't get angry very often about the dirty tricks that so often besmirch the American political process.

But I am angry about the Valerie Plame affair, a sordid tale that flared anew this week when President George Bush commuted the prison sentence of Lewis "Scooter" Libby. I am not angry at the commutation or the pettifogging partisan exchanges it spawned. I am angry at the underlying event - the fact that an American patriot whose only crime was to serve her country in a dangerous and honorable profession had her mission undercut for partisan political purposes.

I am even angrier that the vicious "outing" of Valerie Plame put her sources at risk - the men and women in foreign countries who had risked their own lives to help America in our war on terror.

In the intelligence trade, such foreign sources are called "assets." I call them heroes. And they are the ones who were put most at risk after columnist Robert Novak revealed Plame's CIA connection as part of a clumsy Bush administration effort to discredit her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had become a critic of the Iraq war.

To explain why this case angers me so deeply, let me give you a number: RA68031300. It identifies me as a Vietnam-era veteran of the United States Army. [...]

Between Armitage's dishonorable act and Novak's dishonorable act were a string of other dishonorable acts, including an executive order by President Bush empowering Vice President Cheney to declassify classified information, which Cheney did, thus allowing Libby to shop Plame's identity around in hopes of finding a journalist willing to smear Wilson through his wife. With Libby's information confirming Armitage's original tip, Novak willingly blew Plame's cover. ... "
(Read all.)
http://test.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_6316023