Entitled "GOP Must Go" here are some highlights:
***Faced on Sept. 11, 2001 with a great challenge, President Bush made little effort to understand who had attacked us and whyGÇöthus ignoring the prerequisite for crafting an effective response. He seemingly did not want to find out, and he had staffed his national-security team with people who either did not want to know or were committed to a prefabricated answer.
As a consequence, he rushed America into a war against Iraq, a war we are now losing and cannot win, one that has done far more to strengthen Islamist terrorists than anything they could possibly have done for themselves. BushGÇÖs decision to seize Iraq will almost surely leave behind a broken state divided into warring ethnic enclaves, with hundreds of thousands killed and maimed and thousands more thirsting for revenge against the country that crossed the ocean to attack them. The invasion failed at every level: if securing Israel was part of the administrationGÇÖs calculationGÇöas the record suggests it was for several of his top aidesGÇöthe result is also clear: the strengthening of IranGÇÖs hand in the Persian Gulf, with a reach up to IsraelGÇÖs northern border, and the elimination of the most powerful Arab state that might stem Iranian regional hegemony.The war will continue as long as Bush is in office, for no other reason than the feckless president canGÇÖt face the embarrassment of admitting defeat. The chain of events is not complete: Bush, having learned little from his mistakes, may yet seek to embroil America in new wars against Iran and Syria.
Meanwhile, AmericaGÇÖs image in the world, its capacity to persuade others that its interests are common interests, is lower than it has been in memory. All over the world people look at Bush and yearn for this countryGÇöwhich once symbolized hope and justiceGÇöto be humbled. The professionals in the Bush administration (and there are some) realize the damage his presidency has done to American prestige and diplomacy. But there is not much they can do.
There may be little Americans can do to atone for this presidency, which will stain our countryGÇÖs reputation for a long time. But the process of recovering our good name must begin somewhere, and the logical place is in the voting booth this Nov. 7. If we are fortunate, we can produce a result that is seenGÇöin Washington, in Peoria, and in world capitals from Prague to Kuala LumpurGÇöas a repudiation of George W. Bush and the war of aggression he launched against Iraq.
***
On Nov. 7, the world will be watching as we go to the polls, seeking to ascertain whether the American people have the wisdom to try to correct a disastrous course. Posterity will note too if their collective decision is one that captured the attention of historiansGÇöthat of a people voting, again and again, to endorse a leader taking a country in a catastrophic direction. The choice is in our hands.
November 20, 2006 Issue