The silence from the right is deafening

Just as sure as the sun rises in the East, you can count on the right-wing scream machine to throw out charges of “surrender,” “capitulation” or — my personal favorite — “cut and run” any time the issue is raised about a timetable for withdrawing our forces from Iraq.

Set a date to leave and the bad guys will simply sit back and wait to take over the country, or so the pundits of the right would have us believe.

Funny how silent those pundits have become now that the call for a troop withdrawal timeline has been demanded by none other than Iraq’s top government leaders.

If Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie can see the need for U.S. forces to begin a phased withdrawal, how can the right-wing fanatics remain so blind?

Barack Obama hasn’t waivered from his pledge to begin bringing U.S. combat troops out of Iraq — the details about timing may be subject to further revision, but his intent remains clear.

Expect the GOP attack ads to begin ramping up against Obama on this issue, just as soon as — they hope — voters begin to forget that Iraq’s leadership agrees with the Democrats on this one

Sorry, Charlie

Is McCain adviser Charlie Black out of his mind, or subtly playing the fear factor early in the campaign?

Black is apologizing for a weekend interview in Fortune when he observed that another terrorist attack on U.S. soil before the November election would help his candidate. McCain has already distanced himself from Black’s published interview, but hasn’t told the now-discredited adviser to take a hike.

Shouldn’t we expect more from the driver of the Straight Talk Express?

And what of the GOP strategy of trying to ensure victory in November by scaring American voters? Can a trusted McCain adviser remain in the campaign hierarchy after going on the record seeking to exploit a terror attack that could leave hundreds, thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of victims in its wake?

The GOP, which says it’s making America safer from terrorists, secretly is pulling for another terrorist attack?

What’s the GOP solution going to be next time? Spend another $1 trillion in a failed war on terrorism? Invade another country on the basis of manufactured intelligence data about weapons of mass destruction?

Four more years of this?

Figures can lie, and liars…..

As the presidential election begins to heat up, expect to hear more GOP efforts to introduce the “Big Lie” into the debate — namely, that anything short of a continued open-ended commitment in Iraq represents a “cut-and-run” policy.

At what point, then, can Americans ask, “When is enough enough?”

Our military commitment in Iraq has exceeded the length of World War II. We’ve lost in excess of 4,000 brave members of the military. Tens of thousands of other Marines and soldiers have sustained devastating, life-altering injuries. The death toll of Iraqi civilians is, by most accounts, well above 100,000, and we’ll probably never know the real number.

The record is now clear: We entered into the Iraq war on false pretenses. So, again, at what point can we ask “When is enough enough?”

The administration promised to withdraw troops as soon as Iraq’s own military was able to take over. “As the Iraqi Army stands up, we will stand down” was one of  President Bush’s more catchy phrases. Too bad it was no more than hollow words.

Iraq’s military is no more ready to defend the nation today than it was five years ago.

Instead, U.S. troops forced into extended combat duty, or called back to active duty for three, four or five tours of duty in Iraq, are getting burned out. National Guard resources sent to Iraq to backfill U.S. troop staffing levels are being stretched so thin that the Guard cannot respond to its first priority: responding to domestic crises. The prolonged desert duty is wreaking havoc with our weapons systems, too. Most experts say it will take years to rebuild our military to full strength.

The war’s drain on the U.S. Treasury is nearly a staggering $1 trillion, and this year alone we’ll spend $170 billion. Mind you, that money’s not in the federal budget — we’re simply mortgaging our children’s future by borrowing the funds and adding to the national debt.

So at what point is it a matter of logic, rather than an act of cowardice, to ask our leaders, “When is enough enough?”

100 years in Iraq?

John McCain is justifying his open-ended commitment to a U.S. troop presence in Iraq by drawing comparsions to U.S. deployments in Europe and South Korea.

How often are U.S. forces serving in Germany, or Korea, or Japan, or Bosnia, being placed in harm’s way from suicide bombers or roadside explosives or mortar shells or sniper fire?

Our troops are at risk as long as they remain on Iraqi soil.