When you have an insurgency where so many men are willing to Blow themselves up for little or no gain with insignificant individual impact you have lost. How can one say we are winning? My God I spent two years in Vietnam and we never had attacks like this in Saigon or anywhere in that Country's Cities. We should declare defeat and come home. Let them sort this out themselves. After all it's thier Country I'm tire of all the mindless death and suffering of people who never threatened us.
A Vietnam Vet.

The armed forces recruitment goals are off by 42% these days while it appears that the Martyrs Brigade recruitment goals are being met. At some point it seems the insurgency would have to run out of plastic explosives and people--perhaps by 2015.

Excellent post, Mary!

To everyone here:

Something that occurs to me in conducting our campaign to alert the American people to the war crimes of Bu$hCo is that we also need to make plans for the aftermath. Should we be successful, and the people successfully take decisive action, what do we want to happen next?

Do we want to repair the 'infrastructure' of the American voting system so that we can be reliably sure that our votes are being counted correctly? If so, how do we accomplish this.

Do we want to return the Constitutional prerogative for making war back to the Congress? How do we see to it that it remains there?

Will we regain control over a rampant military-industrial complex which has become so corporatized that it plans wars merely for the profits it can generate? What can we do to ease the economic disruption that will come from disassembling such a major sector of our economy?

We have much work to do. We need to begin the discussion process so that we are better prepared for the post-Bu$hCo disaster that looms than Bu$hCo was in causing this disaster in the first place.

Mary,

This is a first rate post! The best I have seen pulling all of the information together like this and especially when you add your timeline to it. I wish some news organization would use this. Have you thought of sending it out to someone in hopes they would pick up on it?

Anyway thank-you. Hang on/bookmark this post.

Pessimist, many good questions, I have lots to think about, but I am a one step at a time person and feel we first need to get this information out to the masses and placed into their psyche that Bush is a WAr Criminal...period.

Getting that out into the mainstream is a tall and slow order with the media we currently have in this country. Never mind the fact we have a one party imperial state that blatantly disregards the system of checks and balances, subverting, circumventing, disregarding, changing the rules or the law at will. They don't need no stinkin Constitution. Hello in a time of War Junior's executive power is "above the law" and torture is "quaint". Plus Paula Abdul's, Michael Jackson's and the Runaway bride's sexcapades (or abstinence) are all much more important issues the media needs to investigate.

My heart breaks every day thanks to Bush and his corrupt gang. That they can spend millions travelliing around the country in lavish style, wasting money on inaugurations, dressing up for roasts or enjoying so much free time at the ranch is almost gross.

Please believe that so many Canadians are heartbroken and disgusted at what is happening in your country. So much that man has done has affected us, as well, and so many of us have friends and relatives in the U.S.

As this is Mother's Day, and in honour of those Mom's that have lost their sons/daughters/husbands in this senseless Iraq war, it is fitting that everyone visit BUZZFLASH.COM and read the contribution by Cindy Sheehan, Co-founder, Gold Star Families for Peach, titled 'NAME WITHHELD PENDING NOTIFICATION' - just go to Buzzflash.com, it's linked right on the front page.

Thank you to all the writers at The Left Coaster and the other progressive blog sites.

Oops, sorry, Gold Star Families for Peace!!

Do we want to repair the 'infrastructure' of the American voting system so that we can be reliably sure that our votes are being counted correctly? If so, how do we accomplish this.

pessemist, if this isn't taken care of first, we don't get back in power. It's that simple. If your State doesn't have a paper trail, do what it takes to get one. If we all came together one State at a time and innundate those States with a national awareness campaign, it might make a difference. Make a list of States, do one per week, and blast media and legislators with emails, snail-mails and phone calls. Maybe locals could picket. Then the next week move to another. If we don't keep people like muckdog, Toby and bendito from cheating, we never win again. They are scum and will cheat you every way possible to keep in power. Look at what they've done to you for Iraqi oil and money.

Want to co-opt the Soc Ser debate? Nail their coffin shut with voting reform.

One quibble: Our first involvement in Vietnam was to support French colonialism. the reasons for staying, as in Iraq, evolved as we continued to lose good reasons to stay.

Ten years and 20,000 US casualties sounds about right. Just about what the Soviet Union had with Afghanistan before they threw in the towel.

When you have an insurgency where so many men are willing to Blow themselves up for little or no gain with insignificant individual impact you have lost. How can one say we are winning? My God I spent two years in Vietnam and we never had attacks like this in Saigon or anywhere in that Country's Cities.

This is something I wish the media whores would address - a comparison with the Iraqi "insurgents" and the North Vietnamese.

Is there no shortage of Iraqis willing to blow themselves up because they have an endless supply of plastic explosives, thanks to the US military not securing the munition area?

Or is it because Iraq isn't used to being occupied, and the sudden invasion has triggered an explosive nationalistic furor?

Or is it because Islam is such an intergral part of the Iraqi life, unlike the religious role in the lives of North Vietnamese, and they see see "Christian crusaders" invading their country?

To answer your questions, old crone, would require a "D - All of the above" if it were multiple choice :)

" But that analogy doesn't work on the macro level, because the reasons for going into Vietnam were less devious -- no one was advocating war in Vietnam to create an empire. Vietnam was a colossal mistake, but it was largely driven by the paranoia that grew out of the cold war. "

Great post but I disagree about the less devious reasons for vietnam. The fear of Soviet expansion and the so called "domino" theory was all about losing the resources of the third world. In my view it was no accident that american involvement began with the Gulf of Tonkin. There was more than just water in the gulf of Tonkin. Today the Chinese are after Tonkin Oil.
http://dailynews.muzi.com/ll/english/1336999.shtml