miércoles, agosto 23, 2006

War on Terror? On Iraq? Neither?



A sad state of affairs is surrounding the political scene these days, especially with the primaries around the corner and most spectators looking into the crystal ball for the next presidential campaign.

On the one hand, Bush and his cronies have no choice but to come back to the same answers, meaning the war on terror is the same as the war in Iraq. Those who are still able to use their brain however do not equate the Iraq issue with the terror that is displayed by fanatics, so-called freedom fighters and others, willing to go to any extreme to show their displeasure with Washington politics, the U.S. and the Western World in general. All polls in the U.S. indicate that.

About two thirds of the population, finally, is tired of the same rhetoric and the war in Iraq. No surprise here. You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can’t fool all of the people, all the time.
The problem many will have to consider when deciding whom to vote for is more of a partisan issue than that of a logical choice.

Hard core Republicans, with many of them I’m sure opposing this unnecessary war, will have to decide if any future candidate of their choice will confront this administration and try to force them to, for once, tell the truth, get out of Iraq and still look like tough red blooded Republicans.

Democrats, which have representatives that acted mostly in a sheepish way so far, have a better choice, since, while the future performance of any elected candidate has yet to be tested, they have very little to loose. At best, a new Congress, if they get the leverage, could confidently confront the neo-con agenda squarely and without hesitation. At worst, even if they fail on any intent to change the course of history, they can come up winners for speaking out.

For Republicans is a half-baked proposition. If they keep control of both houses, few people will be happy if everything stays the same. If they loose such control, they can always go back to the old book, blaming the newly elected Democrats for whatever other failures may occur.

Democrats on the other hand will have comfortably a win-win show this time. If they get to control Congress, they can try to revert the damaged caused so far by Bush and Co. If something goes wrong after that, they can always blame the past actions on Republicans, Bush and others, for their trickery, lies and half-truths leading to the present. If things improve, they will have a huge advertising banner for their aspirations in 2008.

Welcome the new era in American politics, where a bunch of erratic extremists and foreign dictators are basically influencing who we will have to vote for. Sad, very sad.