Please Stay a Little Bit Longer

The dismal reality just keeps rolling through my mind at this late hour robbing me of rest. Our troops have to stay. Like water spiraling down the drain and into a sewer, that's where every Republican canard and conservative dodge leads. Over 4000 American KIA, thousands more maimed for life, half a trillion dollars and counting, no end in sight. But according to the mundane idiots and clever liars that got us into this disaster we are making dramatic progress, like this:

NYT -- For a brief moment, Washington politics intruded into a world in which automatic weapons fire, tank fire and explosives rock the streets. But before General Petraeus could complete his prepared statement, the power shut down again.

Look, there are only three future possibilities, and staying in Iraq is the only answer the GOP has for any of the three. Forget crayons, this flow chart could be drawn with a can of spray paint on a legal pad: 1) Violence up, our soldiers have to stay. 2) No change, Petraeus explains why our troops have to stay. And 3) if someday the violence falls to whatever arbitrary magic number is deemed acceptable, can our troops finally come home? TPM dug up this gem from the New Yorker which sums up the absurdity of John McCain's answer to that one perfectly:

McCain wants to stay in Iraq until no more Americans are getting killed, no matter how long it takes and how many Americans get killed achieving that goal - that is, the goal of not getting any more Americans killed. And once that goal is achieved, we'll stay.

For years we've been told that our troops can't leave until Iraq is stable and secure, conveniently vague conditions that Crocker and Petraeus were unable to define today despite repeated opportunties to do so. But McCain laid even that lie to rest: we're going to stay in Iraq no matter what for a hundred years, a thousand years, or ten-thousand years. Or until the Republicans and their DINO lackeys are kicked out of DC.  

Open Thread for Night Owls & Early Birds

CongressDaily (subscription only) reports:

Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Charles Schumer of New York said Tuesday that public polling shows his party's candidates ahead in five of the 17 Republican-held seats he is watching this year, one in which the Democrat is running even and two in which the Democrats are close behind.

In a briefing for reporters, Schumer said Democrats are leading in Senate races in Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado, New Mexico and Alaska. He listed Oregon, Maine and Minnesota as "within reach," noting that Democrat Al Franken is polling evenly with Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in Minnesota.

All told, Schumer optimistically proclaimed Democrats were competitive in 17 of 23 elections for seats now held by Republicans.

The Overnight News Digest has been posted.

Open Thread and Diary Rescue

Tonight's Rescue Rangers are Louisiana1976, jlms qkw, jennyjem, dadanation, srkp23, joyful, with YatPundit bringing up the rear of the second line as editor.

Please enjoy these diaries as they are examples of the fine writing found every day here on Daily Kos.

• As Earth Day nears, our waterways are increasingly in peril. Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse describes how a New Bush Rule Promotes Killing Streams & Lakes in this detailed, well-researched diary. (Louisiana 1976)
• environmentalist alerts us to some good news, so far: Judge Says No to Uranium Mining Near Grand Canyon. (srkp23)
• In Letter From California paradox eloquently highlights one of the more recent outrageous possible consequences of California's budget shortfall -- the loss of 48 state parks. (dadanation)
• Avenging Angel, armed with well-researched detail, poses Five Questions for Petraeus and Crocker. (srkp23)
• markthshark examines the VP's role in the war between the factions in Iraq in Iraq’s Upcoming Summer of Blood: Cheney has Guaranteed it, while Mutual Assured Destruction explores the possible consequences of that war in Iraq Brief: Al-Malaki-Al-Sadr fight, winners, losers and consequences of two weeks of fighting. (jennyjem)
• Bendygirl is celebrating May 1st with solidarity and invites you to do the same in On May Day, Remembering the Cost of War. (jennyjem)
• In contrast to today's hearings, pfiore8 asks questions from a different angle in tell me again, who are the terrorists? (jlms qkw)
• iampunha reminds us of a great activist who left us too soon in April 8, 1992: AIDS didn't care who Arthur Ashe was. (jennyjem)
• The deadly epidemic that ravages a region that is so close, yet so far is detailed in AIDS Orphans in the Caribbean by Deoliver47 who delivers some alarming statistics on its human cost. (Louisiana 1976)
• Where Jonathan Chait of the New Republic sees weakness, AndrewMC sees strength in The "Weakness of Liberalism," or: Doughfaces Revisited. (jennyjem)
• rjones2818 wonders how many people are denied entrance into America because they disagree with the current Administration's policies in Irish Peace Activist Acquitted; Deported w/poll. (jennyjem)
• What to do when you are declared "unfit to have the privileges of 'normal' people?" Anti Fanatic brings us a thoughtful, first-hand perspective in, Disability is in the eye of the beholder - or State. (joyful)
• EmilyD tells us about V-Day and wraps up women's issues with Katrina in Get Yourself to New Orleans (With Art!). (jlms qkw)
• Mrs Panstreppon investigates and reveals the truth behind the misleadingly named Progressive Policy Council: Textbook 501(c)(4) GOP Front. (srkp23)
• dianamarie13 offers up an excellent report on Democrats making real differences in a red state: Homelessness is a Democratic Issue in Idaho. (srkp23)

Please feel free to join Diary Rescue by promoting your own selections in this Open Thread.

McCain: Don't choose to lose in Iraq

This morning's Senate Armed Services Committee hearings on Iraq showed pretty decisively that the Bush administration's policies are made of straw. Their chief advocate in the Senate, John McCain, delivered an uninspired and somewhat risible defense of them. Here is the conclusion of John McCain's prepared remarks (PDF):

Congress must not choose to lose in Iraq. We should choose, instead, to succeed.

That's a measure of the depth of his thinking about the morass McCain helped the nation to get into. For him, it's simply a question of deciding to succeed. In McCain's world, others such as the Iraqis have no influence in the matter - unless we mistakenly choose to let them determine their own fate.

Then there's the problem that for McCain and other Republican apologists for the Bush policy, 'winning' is never clearly, consistently, and realistically defined. Here is McCain this morning trying to move the goalposts once again (emphasis mine):

Since the middle of last year, sectarian and ethnic violence, civilian deaths, and deaths of coalition forces have all fallen dramatically. This improved security environment has led to a new opportunity, one in which average Iraqis can, in the future, approach a more normal political and economic life. Reconciliation has moved forward, and over the weekend Sunni, Shia and Kurdish leaders backed the Prime Minister in a statement supporting his operation in Basra and urging the disbandment of militias...today, it is possible to talk with real hope and optimism about the future of Iraq and the outcome of our efforts there.

This paragraph sums up so much of the new Republican spin. First, it has always been possible to talk optimistically about Iraq; that is all that Bush and his GOP enablers have done since 2003. If they're ever skeptical about "progress" in Iraq, we only hear about it long after the fact - when, they say, optimism is again in order. Hence, McCain wants us to forget about the nasty failure in Basra less than two weeks ago. Instead, we're supposed to build our dreams upon a vague statement of support for Maliki this past weekend by several Sunni and Kurd leaders who are hostile to Moqtada al-Sadr.

Second, we have the lies. Iraqis have made virtually no progress on reconciliation in the last 15 months. It's the most basic fact of all, for Bush made reconcilation and the suppression of ethnic cleansing and violence in Baghdad the central goals of his "surge". Ethnic cleansing was essentially completed during the "surge", violence is sharply up again, and reconciliation is nowhere to be seen. McCain knows that of course, which is why he later doubles down on the lie: "The Iraqis must continue the reconciliation that has helped dampen violence over recent months." The Sunni "concerned citizens" are unreconciled with Maliki's government, so this is lavishly dishonest.

Third, we have goal posts careening all over the field. McCain is measuring "progress" over a span of 9 months, rather than 15. And "progress" consists merely in getting to the point where there's an opportunity at some unspecified stage in the future to approach a more (how much more?) normal life. Even though the original benchmarks of success were vague, McCain's latest version is beyond ridiculous.

His questioning of David Petraeus and Ryan Crocker was somewhat perfunctory and added little insight. It looked calculated to give the impression that McCain was asking tough and skeptical questions, though he accepted vague responses without demur. As noted already by Devilstower, McCain also appeared to be confused yet again about whether Al Qaeda is a Sunni or Shiite group.

After that incident, Mr. McCain told NBC News that “to think that I would have some lack of knowledge about Sunni and Shia after my eighth visit and my deep involvement in this issue is a bit ludicrous.”

And then having finished with his performance, as Sen. Bayh later noted, John McCain got up and left the hearing (live-blogged here). So McCain wasn't around to hear David Petraeus announce that he'd pushed the champagne bottle to the back of his fridge in Iraq. Probably the prudent thing to do - though you have to wonder about the wisdom of bringing champagne there in the first place.