"With Trembling Fingers"

(This editorial is a fantastic, absolute must read!)

http://www.indyweek.com/durham/current/news.html

Despite the worst foreign policy blunder in American history, George W. Bush and his millionaire supporters don't know the meaning of the word shame

B Y H A L C R O W T H E R

I used to take a drink on occasion with a network newsman famed for his impenetrable calm--his apparent pulse rate that of a large mammal in deep hibernation--and in an avuncular moment he advised me that I'd do all right, in the long run, if I could only avoid the kind of journalism committed to the keyboard "with trembling fingers." I recognized the wisdom of this advice and endeavored over the years to write as little as possible when my blood pressure was soaring and my face was streaked with tears. The lava flows of indignation ebb predictably with age and hardening arteries, and nearing three-score I thought I'd never have to take another tranquilizer--or a double bourbon--to keep my fingers steady on the keys.

>>snip<<


The irreducible truth is that the invasion of Iraq was the worst blunder, the most staggering miscarriage of judgment, the most fateful, egregious, deceitful abuse of power in the history of American foreign policy. If you don't believe it yet, just keep watching. Apologists strain to dismiss parallels with Vietnam, but the similarities are stunning. In every action our soldiers kill innocent civilians, and in every other action apparent innocents kill our soldiers--and there's never any way to sort them out. And now these acts of subhuman sadism, these little My Lais.

Since the defining moment of the Bush presidency, the preposterous flight-suit, Fox News-produced photo-op on the Abraham Lincoln in front of the banner that read "Mission Accomplished," the shaming truth is that everything has gone wrong. Just as it was bound to go wrong, as many of us predicted it would go wrong--if anything more hopelessly wrong than any of us would have dared to prophesy. Iraq is an epic train wreck, and there's not a single American citizen who's going to walk away unscathed.

More: http://www.indyweek.com/durham/current/news.html

one of the most outstanding editorials I've ever read!!

I agree - a must read.

He sums up the "outrage" better than anybody I've ever read.

...and this part of the article is, I think, instructive. A lot of our differences can be summed up neatly for the voting public.

It's this:

I don't think it's accurate to describe America as polarized between Democrats and Republicans, or between liberals and conservatives. It's polarized between the people who believe George Bush and the people who do not.

This was posted here a few days ago. I emailed it to a bunch of friends. It well deserves to be kept on the front page.

:kick:

I have sent this one out to my friends. Thank you, this was very, very good.

I don't think the mods would mind, and posts don't fall off so fast there. This is a keeper.
;-)

Thanks :)

That's amazingly written. I have a physical copy of that in my car somewhere- picked up the paper, never got around to reading it last week. Thanks for the heads up!

You're welcome! :-)