Found this in Bugsy's Journal:...in the democratic party.
I'll admit, I've not been a stalwart party supporter since the Clinton years when I began to feel a strong disjunct between my liberalism and the nation's direction. Still, I had hopes for the democratic party, and as a liberal, I really wanted some political representation. It's not just that the democratic party ignores liberals-- the truth is far worse. The party uses us, then betrays us. It asks us to support democratic candidates and political agendas, but it never reciprocates. Not in my lifetime, at least, and I've been paying attention since I began voting in the early 1970s.
We've been used again. Now we're being betrayed.
Despite arguments from party apologists that Obama is taking a pragmatic approach to the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, the undeniable truth is that most Americans, and certainly all but the most incomprehensible liberals, want America out of those wars and that we voted for Obama because we saw him as the best way to accomplish that. Admittedly, he never promised outright to end them. He has always equivocated, but even among his most ardent supporters there was always the baseline assumption that "Obama will end Bush's unnecessary wars." I was assured of that in this forum many times during the campaign.
Now we're told that his only real promise was to "try" to end "combat operations" by 16 months after assuming office, and that the definitions of "try to end" and "combat operations" are just as difficult for him to pin down today as the definition of "sex" was difficult for Bill Clinton to be unequivocal about. We are being betrayed.
Further, we're learning that he's always thought it would be "necessary" for American troops to remain in Iraq indefinitely for a host of other purposes, not "combat" per se, but with the slippery definition of "combat" in question, the role of American military forces in Iraq can be changed at the stroke of a definition. We are being betrayed.
What Obama said or didn't say isn't really the issue here, either. Let's be clear about that. The real issues are the nature of the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, and the unequivocal desire of Americans to be rid of them.
The wars are crimes against humanity. They are illegal and immoral. They are wars of aggression. There is no gilding that can make them look otherwise. Americans-- and their allies-- fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan are war criminals by definition. There was no justification for invading either country, no justification for aggression against the people of either country, no reason that justifies their wholesale murder by Americans. Since the Clinton years we have killed close to two million Iraqi civilians, and it's hard to say, at this point, whether Clinton or Bush holds the record for murdering the greatest number. But that too isn't really the point either.
There is simply no possible justification for continuing either war in any form. They are crimes, plain and simple. We-- Americans-- are war criminals and our crime is ongoing. We must stop it. We cannot restore our innocence-- it is far too late for that, but we can stop the crime before more people die and more of Iraq and Afghanistan are destroyed. Every day that we continue the wars compounds our guilt. Every day. We are being betrayed.
It's also true that there is no good reason to continue this crime for 16 months or perhaps indefinitely except to massage the pride of the guilty. Do we tell bank robbers or kidnappers that they have to stop in 16 months? Of course not. We demand that criminals face the consequences of their crimes, and the first step is always ceasing the crime if it is still in progress.
Finally, the real point is that Americans did not elect Barak Obama to continue the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan for 16 more months, or longer. Liberals-- the folks the democratic party has so consistently betrayed for at least the last twenty years-- certainly did not work for Obama in order to keep those crimes against humanity going. We are being betrayed.
We want an end to American crimes against humanity in Iraq and Afghanistan. We want our government to hear OUR voices, rather than the voices of the already guilty clamoring for more war, longer war, more blood, greater destruction. We want to be heard, rather than betrayed yet again.
Mr Obama, stop the wars.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/mike_c
