March 8, 2007

One quick read of this article on the estimated two million refugees from Iraq* and the other two million left homeless inside Iraq and one sees the story of the war and the Iraq that George built.

Bush and Cheney have more than decimated Iraq. That is, in a country of 26 million people, Bush and Cheney have killed directly, caused the deaths indirectly, or caused the evacuation, of over four million people. That is, over 15% of the population has been cut up, root and branch, from the nation. Focusing on two people, a doctor and spouse, CNN tells the story of far too many Iraqis. Abtan, a doctor, fled to Jordan to avoid certain decapitation. He has lost ten relatives and four friends to violent death, "including two doctors murdered at work. His wife has lost three relatives. They have no plans to return to Iraq anytime soon, but they want better lives now."

Further, those fleeing Iraq are, like Abtan, of the professional class consisting of doctors, lawyers, engineers and professors seeking work elsewhere. In other words, Iraq is undergoing a literal brain drain, with the intelligentsia either losing their heads or becoming cells of a national intelligence hemorrhaging, leaving only the most rabid lunatics and their helpless victims behind. The country has actually lost its mind.

This is the Iraq that George built. This is the democracy that the invasion has produced. This result alone should be enough to impel the US Congress to impeach Bush and Cheney, try them for treason and war crimes, and take over the executive office until the next "election." The world needs to be made safe from them.

But for reasons that involve both political allegiance of the most despicable sort-the kind that allows people to keep dying to protect party interests-and political cowardice of the most egregious kind-Democrats afraid of being called names-we have nothing but tepid and tumid resolutions with built-in waivers for Bush to violate them.. In other words, we get nothing but the same carte blanche to continue on the path of no-return.

How far down to hell will we allow Bush to dig in Iraq before we remove the shovel from his hands and…

Smack me over the head when this is over. That's what it will take to convince me that I've woken up from the nightmare.