Disconnect

It's the disconnect that's not working for you, Bush. People read their newspapers, watch their television, surf the Internet for news... and then they hear the words that you recite from your crib sheet or your teleprompter, and they see the disconnect. Today we read about the malnutrition and torture of scores of Iraqi prisoners by their Iraqi captors, in an apparent return to--or reversal of--the bad old practices of Saddam Hussein. This time it's the Sunnis at the receiving end. But you have to wonder, Bush, don't you, what's going to happen when we pull our troops out? Back to square one?

Listen, even the Senate is fed up, as we learned from yesterday's vote, demanding, pretty much, that you finally take a hard look at the reality of the situation over there, and start to tell the truth. They're fed up with the repitition of the same old "stay the course" lecture, the same old promises that our troops will leave as soon as the Iraqis have learned to take care of themselves, the same old reassurances that things are looking up. Evidently, Bush, the Senators read their newspapers, too, and watch their televisions. And register the shift in the political winds when their constituents begin to mutter amongst themselves. I had to chuckle at the spin your people tried to put on the Senate vote--that it endorses your position. For the rest of us, Bush, it represents a long-overdue rebuke.