A Very Quiet About-Face

One of Dubya's most oft used phrases is "Stay the Course". Anytime someone suggests bringing the troops home or ending offensive engagements, Mr. Bush sternly scolds, "Stay the course. Stay the course." Now, according to the Guardian Unlimited, our Commander-in-Thief has decided NOT to stay the course in one specific area -- Rebuilding Iraq.

The Bush administration has scaled back its ambitions to rebuild Iraq from the devastation wrought by war and dictatorship and does not intend to seek new funds for reconstruction, it emerged yesterday.

In a decision that will be seen as a retreat from a promise by President George Bush to give Iraq the best infrastructure in the region, administration officials say they will not seek reconstruction funds when the budget request is presented to Congress next month, the Washington Post reported yesterday.

So folks, there we have it. The country that we have willfully blown up and continue to blow up will soon have to rebuild itself. It is now painfully obvious that, what Bush stated in February 2003 in a speech at the Washington D.C. Hilton, is not the same as "Stay the course."

Rebuilding Iraq will require a sustained commitment from many nations, including our own: we will remain in Iraq as long as necessary, and not a day more. America has made and kept this kind of commitment before -- in the peace that followed a world war.

Obviously "sustained" means something different to this man. For most people, sustained means "ongoing, maintain or prolong" (e.g., the Marshall Plan) -- Staying the course. But for Bush, these words only apply to aggression.

I was vocally against this "war" even before it began and I remain appalled at our nation's continued use of unmitigated military force on the small nation of Iraq. We have a MORAL and ETHICAL responsibility to clean up and rebuild the destruction we've wrought. To do otherwise is beyond shameful!!