Time Out, George
posted by Rick at 11:58 PM

OK, that's it. Time for the grownups to step in and give Georgie a time-out. If only the grownups were in charge of the playground!

We are enmeshed in two wars already, neither of which we are winning. The Taliban are resurgent in Afghanistan, and the Iraqi insurgency is gaining strength every day. The American people are rapidly becoming fed up with the whole sorry mess.

So what's our President's response? He's rattling his saber in Iran's direction. .

"All options are on the table," he said.

I thought for a minute that I was watching old footage from the fall of 2002.

"In all these instances we want diplomacy to work and so we're working feverishly on the diplomatic route and we'll see if we're successful or not."

That's exactly the same thing he said about Iraq. But as we have learned from former administration insiders, he was already dead set on war. He neither had then, nor has now, any desire to see diplomacy succeed. The Cowboy In Chief is itchin' for another fight.

"As I say, all options are on the table. The use of force is the last option for any president and you know, we've used force in the recent past to secure our country."

George, three things.

First, we've heard the line about war being the last resort before - and we're not buying it anymore. You smugly call yourself a "war president," and Americans are finally beginning to understand what you mean. War, although you ran from it when you were of fighting age, is not a last resort for you now that you get to stay home and push the buttons. War is your modus operandi; war is what you do. So don't give us this "last resort" bullshit anymore. We know better.

Second, Americans have also caught onto the fact that you did not use force to secure our country - far from it. In fact, you have made us less secure with your bellicose rhetoric, your "bring it on" bravado, and your warmongering. So your claim of having used force to secure our country ring false. What you used force for was to lash out at someone you didn't like; securing our country was just a pretext - and, as it turns out, a pretense.

And third, your mouth is writing checks your ass can't cash. Well, not that your ass expects to cash them anyway. You and your Vice President and the rest of your chickenhawk administration, when your own asses were on the line, "had other priorities" than putting yourselves in harm's way. But I digress. The point is, you've already - despite warnings from your own advisors - stretched our military to the breaking point. What makes you think you can afford to start a third war? What makes you think the American people are going to stand for it?

Somebody has got to say "enough is enough." If the right-wing rubber-stamp Republicans in Congress don't find a way to rein in their boy, the grown-ups - which is to say, the voters - are likely to pull the plug on the whole bunch of them in about 15 months. And then the quagmire will really hit the fan.