And the Answer Is?

With the release of the Iraq Study Group report, the question is whether the Bush Administration will heed its recommendations. Will Bush begin the withdrawal from the disaster that is Iraq or continue to "stay the course" (or whatever the phrase du jour is to describe our feckless Iraq policy)?

Matthew Rothschild of The Progressive opines in Bush Dawdles for a Reason:

With every day a wasting, with the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq now standing at 2,920 and climbing, Bush is dawdling.

The decider can’t seem to decide what to do about Iraq.

He is too prideful, too headstrong, too macho, too ignorant, and too foolish to do the sensible thing, which happens to be what a majority of the American people want, and that’s to set a timetable for withdrawal and get out of there.

No, that’s not on Bush’s agenda.

He’s already torn up the fig leaf that James Baker gave him to exit stage right.

Bush is crazy enough to still think he can wrest victory from the jaws of defeat, when he’s just going to end up throwing more bodies into those bloody jaws.

My bet is that he’s postponed his big speech till after the holidays because he doesn’t want to dampen this season of cheer by announcing that he’s planning on upping the troop levels.

Only 12 percent of the American people are in favor of that, according to an LA Times/Bloomberg poll this week.

But Bush and Cheney don’t care what the American people want.

As Cheney said, right before the election, “It may not be popular with the public—it doesn’t matter.”

The hubris that Bush and Cheney exhibited on the way into Iraq will soon be on full display again as they drag this country deeper into the morass, against the wishes of the American people and against the wishes of the Iraqi people.

Can it be true? Would the Bush Administration ignore not only the view of most other countries, many of his Generals and the Iraq Study Group, but the will of the American people?

Of course it is. As Rothchild noted, Cheney said as much even before the election that that was widely viewed as a repudiation of the policies of the Republican Party. When discussing impact of the election on the war, Cheney remarked: "It may not be popular with the public. It doesn’t matter….." See, Frankly My Dears, We Don't Give a Damn. So, the real question that has to be asked is:

Are the American people really going to stand for this?

The will of the people is clear. In poll after poll, a plurality of voters have said that their No. 1 issue is Iraq, and back in November, they elected a Democratic Congress with a clear message that it was time for a new direction in the conflict.

So inquires Will Bunch of the Daily News asks, in The madness of King George: Are you going to take this sitting down?:

The idea that a president could pursue a policy on the No. 1 issue facing that country that is only supported by 12 percent of the public, and vehemently opposed by most, is stunning. Consider the political landscape in 1968, when a majority of Americans turned against Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam policy, although not even by the overwhelming condemnation that Bush now faces. LBJ dropped out of the presidential race, halted bombing of North Vietnam and pursued peace talks -- all in the wake of a New Hampshire primary that he actually won, just not by an incumbent's expected margin.

I've been around long enough to see some really unpopular, or at least imperiled, presidents -- Nixon in Watergate, Jimmy Carter in the Iran hostage crisis, and the impeachment of Bill Clinton -- and to also see times of great risk, including Nixon placing American troops on full-alert (we learned years later) in the depths of his failed presidency. But we have never seen anything as potentially dangerous, or as so alien to the principles of American democracy, as the folly that President Bush is considering.

* * * *

How far can President Bush go in defying the will of the American people, let alone the Constitution, before people take it to the streets. And by that, I'm not talking about revolution, just lawful protest and assembly, showing the world that these reckless military actions will not stand, and showing fellow Americans also alarmed by what's going on inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue they are not alone.

* * * *

And what options are left? Impeachment, a process that takes months upon months, is unpopular with many Americans who don't like Bush, would surely not get at least 16 GOP Senate votes for removal and would result in President Dick Cheney if by some miracle it did? What's more, the issue at hand -- sending 20,000 more troops into the maelstrom of a mistake -- probably isn't illegal, just highly immoral and wrong. And the time is to stop it isn't months from now but right now, before it happens.

But is protest even possible anymore? So much has changed since the 1960s. Scientists will tell you that self-preservation is the greatest human motivating factor, and so the end of the draft and the creation of a volunteer military that draws heavily on poorer and more isolated communities for troops while sparing most elite communities has created a kind of natural barrier to 1960s-style protests.

* * * *

But now the madness of King George is descending to a new level.

And so one has to ask: Are the American people really going to take this sitting down? (Emphasis added)

And the answer is?

While attending a tree trimming party last evening, this topic was part of a discussion that I had with a woman who is socially active in a number of good causes. After listing the litany of egregious policies inimical to our country implemented by the Bush Administration, we pondered the solution. Is protesting in the streets the answer? Impeachment? What will it take to correct the crash course that Bush has had us on for these 6 long years?

And the answer is?

Tags: Commentary, Bush, Politics, Iraq