Speaking of congress...

Igor Writes-

Why isn't everybody furious??!?

When we swept the Democrats into office, it came with the message "we do not approve of the Iraq war". Despite that, the Democrats have caved in to the president at the cost of who knows how many American and Iraqi lives.

Do you realize that an estimated 65,000 iraqis have died as a result of this war? Does anyone really believe that less than 90% of those 65,000 are civilians caught in the crossfire? That's too scary to even think about it. Which is exactly why they should.

So congress passes a bill, authorizing new funding for Iraq contingent upon a gradual reduction of troops starting in September. Despite the glaring fact that between now and September nothing will change except the number of casualties, I liked that the Democrats at least were trying.

If you ask me, they should have simply cut all funding, forcing the president to call back the troops. Even Bush isn't heartless enough to leave the troops with no money and equipment.

In any case, congress' bill was promptly vetoed. This was a crossroads. All the Democrats had to do was to continue to pass the same bill over and over until they forced Bush's hand. But they caved. And now people will have to continue dying.

This is a travesty. The same democrats that are currently running for president and shouting how much they deplore the war in Iraq did NOTHING to prevent the extension. And for this, we should be furious.

In reality, congress has been playing this game for years. McCain and Bush would constantly bicker over legislation and policy, making McCain look centrist and independent, empowering congress. But if you look closely, what really was happening was that Bush would propose something so preposterously reactionary that anything that McCain counter-proposed would seem much more grounded. In reality, The compromises that McCain and Bush would come to were still really ridiculous and right-leaning, but didn't anger people as much because it looked as if someone had actually stood up to the president. Of course now we see that McCain has no credibility and is just as much of a liar as the next guy.

The same thing is happening with this congress. They are "compromising" the president, in reality bending the will of the people toward Bush's agenda, keeping up only the semblance of debate and disagreement.

No one is on our side here. The government seems to want nothing to do with public opinion. The government, that is, including the Democrats and Republicans, which in my eyes are now in the same boat. The same sinking boat. And both parties refuse to abandon ship (if you'll excuse the nautical punnery).

I guess the real question is: what can we do about it?

Well, you can elect a guy like Mike Gravel, who is far enough out there such that he won't conform to anyone's ideals, but that doesn't look like it can possibly happen.

So you see, we are setting ourselves up to be played by both sides when we have only these two lousy political parties to choose from.

I for one, no longer trust anyone.