Why Bush couldn't get out after taking out Saddam.

[gulliver]

Only Dems can get America of Iraq.

Bush and the Republicans have a conflict of interest there. Plainly stated, Republicans have no choice but to continue to spend American lives and lavish amounts of taxpayer money in Iraq. The minute Republicans stop throwing American power at Iraq, it will collapse, and the GOP will collapse with it.


The white working class doesn't like the Bush occupation of Iraq. John B. Judis and Ruy Teixeira have a great article in The New Republic called "White Flight" (Bush loses his base.) Unfortunately, it seems to be subscriber-only right now.

<snip>

(West Virginian working class guy Terry) ... asked his opinion of President George W. Bush and the Iraq war ... says he used to like Bush and, at first, he thought it was a "good idea" to invade Iraq. But he has now changed his mind. "They shouldn't have gone over there," he says. "They are killing a whole lot of innocent people. It isn't worth it. They already caught the guy. They should have gotten the troops out then."

<snip>

Dems should point out to guys like Terry that Bush could not just leave after catching Saddam without destroying the Republican party. The Republicans have gone all-in on Iraq, and it is has turned out to be a disastrous hand of poker. Staying in Iraq indefinitely is now the only way to hide the loss that the Republicans have dealt to America's pocketbook and safety.

[OneBlueSky]

1. "you break it, you bought it" . . .

having invaded and essentially devastated the country, we can't just walk away from it . . . we have a responsibility to fix what we've broken, from the infrastructure to the government to the military/security forces to the families now without breadwinners . . . I want the us out of there, too, but just pulling up stakes and leaving, without providing for some means of repairing the damage we've caused, just isn't something we can do right now . . . imo . . .

[gulliver]

2. I agree.

The point I am trying to make is that we can score points with working class whites because Kerry can get us out of Iraq sooner than Bush. Bush lashed the destiny of a "free, democratic, stable Iraq" to the survival of the Republican party. In doing that, Bush has created an unresolvable conflict of interest between Republican party survival and the best interest of America with respect to Iraq.

Iraq now looks like the worst political investment in history. The Republicans shot their wad on it. I hope they enjoyed their upfront payoff in the 2002 elections, because it is about to be followed by a slow, painful slide into political oblivion. I think so, because I don't see a free, democratic, stable Iraq happening in my lifetime -- especially when Bush himself has done so much to wreck Christian/Muslim relations.

Abu Ghraib was the bell tolling for Republicans. They are gut shot.