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At last, the Bushites have realized that they must face reality in Iraq, so they’ve launched a major new offensive in their war effort. Unfortunately, their offensive is against you and me.
The reality they face is that their war is a disaster for our troops, our treasury, our world reputation, their own credibility, and perhaps their political future, so they’ve decided to do what they do best: play politics with war. Anyone who criticizes their obvious failures is blasted as giving comfort to terrorists, and even the moderate Democrats who call for a timed withdrawal of our troops are lashed as being cut-and-run traitors.
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However, in their eagerness to slime opponents and put a happy face on the mess in Iraq, the Bushites are revealing their own callousness, exposing themselves as rank opportunists and canting hypocrites. Their true feelings were expressed on June 15 when George’s chief PR flack, Tony Snow, was asked if Bush had any reaction to the fact that the death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq had just surpassed 2,500. Snow got his back up and snidely responded: “it’s a number.” He then added, “every time there’s one of these 500 benchmarks [in troop deaths] people want something.”
Uh, yeah, Tony – that’s because such a number is not a statistic to those who have loved ones at risk in your war. Those are 2,500 sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, friends and family. They are not “a number,” they are people.
But, of course, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Snow, and the rest don’t have any close relatives or friends in Iraq. They are fighting their war with our loved ones – so, it’s just “a number.”
This is Jim Hightower saying… After his comment, Snow babbled on about how well things are going in Iraq. A reporter finally interrupted to ask if Bush had even been told about the benchmark. Snow snapped back, “I don’t know. I’m sure he will hear about it.”
Sources:
“Snow on 2,500 U.S. Fatalities In Iraq: ‘It’s A Number,” Thinkprogress.org, June 19, 2006.
“2,500 Soldiers is more than ‘just a number,'” Harry Reid’s Blog www.giveemhellharry.com, June 19, 2006.
“Tony Snow on U.S. Death #2500 in Iraq: ‘It’s a Number,'” Editor & Publisher, June 19, 2006.