Dubya vs. Dean

Regarding this story…do I wish Howard Dean would keep his mouth shut? Of course (and I support the guy). I particularly feel that way because the sentiments he expressed were already communicated in a moving and articulate way by Rep. John Murtha. But before anyone starts dumping on Dean, I would ask that you consider this:

- He said when the Iraq War started that it would increase the risk of terrorism to this country (can't find a current link - sorry...). He was predictably hooted down by the right wing echo chamber. However, Dean turned out to be right.

- He made that unfortunate remark about Tom DeLay returning to Texas “to begin serving his sentence.” Again, he was hooted down (and I cringed when I heard what Dean said). However, I think recent developments have caught up with Dean’s original remark (and as Atrios noted today, even the high and mighty Wall Street Journal is sending a signal to DeLay that he’s on his own at this point).

I checked CNN to read more about Iraq today, but I noticed something else that was interesting. I was going to note that their “Quick Vote” question was “Do you think we’ll win the war in Iraq?” or something like that, and the choices were “Yes, in the short term,” “Yes, though it will be a long haul,” or “No,” (I’m paraphrasing all over the place here), and “No” was selected overwhelmingly. I was going to note that Dean was a lot more correct on this than Bush will ever be.

However, the Quick Vote question was just pulled, and it is now, “Can Iraq be rebuilt even as the insurgency continues?,” with Yes and No as the choices (a lot less provocative of a question, I must say), and again, the “No” choice was picked overwhelmingly.

Am I pointing all of this out to gloat about how great the Dems are and how arrogant and clueless the Repugs are? A bit, yes – I won’t lie to you (though the Dems, as a party, have to mirror the "John Edwards" model of this issue, namely stating that they were wrong but our service people were correct and heroic all along regardless, though many of the Dems are reluctant to do that, to their eternal folly).

But I am mainly continuing to “beat this drum” to call attention to the fact that our service people have been betrayed and they need to be redeployed out of Iraq ASAP. Everybody who knows what he or she is talking about on this says the same thing; that our continued military presence is fueling the terrorist insurgency.

Our people should NOT be over there serving as targets. They’ve done the best they can.

And regarding this story…well, let’s just say that “I’m from Missouri,” Mr. President (or could this speech have been a distraction from this?).

- Show me pictures of these accomplishments.

- Give me testimonials from Iraqis who are willing to go on the record.

- Establish milestones like Jack Reed and John Murtha have said and show me something like a project flowchart to measure our progress.

Do it, or get our service people the hell out of there!