k wrote:
Well, it's not like it matters much, since no one in congress has a spine, Bush is gonna do what Petreus said and the military realities are going to force our hand one way or another pretty soon.

I agree, sort of. I think there are a lot of people in Congress on your side of this issue. There just aren't enough of them to pass a bill...

Thus, all of Bush's talk about drawing down troops over the next 6 months is quite literally a simple concession to reality, as well as theatre.

Nod.

We're turning into a surveillance state, at best, well on our way to a jackbooted police state. Science is under attack, Christian extremism is reaching new heights and fear fills in all the cracks.

I think this is pessimistic. We aren't running a surveillance state (but we are chewing away at the legal structures that prohibit us from doing so). I think the chips that were being thrown to the conservative "base" by Rove are tempered, nationally, by the unpopularity of the Republicans right now, and also become some of that stuff isn't polling as well as it was in 04 because a few people have grown up. I think that is receding.

RE: The Iraq war | Why they should stay | Economist.com