Purplevision

War is life and death. It is the failure of reason. It is the ultimate price for a nation - a price of human lives and tax dollars. If there was ever an issue that was important to take a firm stand on, it is war.

Up until now, the political talk about our war in Iraq has had all the passion (or less) of the Superbowl. But not this morning.

Lindsay Graham (an air force lawyer) and Jim Webb (a marine corp officer with combat experience in Vietnam) had a genuine, emotional argument about Iraq today on Meet the Press. Seeing our leaders argue with passion and not talking points is such a rare thing, it is definitely worth a look.

I like Lindsay Graham but he comes off in this discussion as a real ass. Like John McCain, Graham's unwavering support for the President after 4 years of obvious failure is hard to watch. We have to wait for this general's report in September? (No pressure, Gen Petraeus.) What about the last general's report, Lindsay? Or the one before that? We have had a long line of generals in Iraq; each one of them has asked for more time before getting fired and replaced while the situation has gotten worse and worse.

Just this week one of the combat generals on the ground made a press statement that before we could assess any changes or troop pull out we needed to decide what our desired end state in Iraq is. What?! All this time and the generals do not know what their goals are? No wonder we have failed.

I feel terrible for McCain. If he had won in 2000, we would not be in any of this mess and I still think he would make a great President. But his unwavering support of the colossal failure of the Bush dreamers & schemers is destroying his election campaign. Based on today's interview, the same position may well sink Graham too.

I was particularly irritated (as was Webb) by Graham's assertion that when troops re-enlist it proves that our military policies are working. That must be some kind of South Carolina logic and it is in sharp contrast to the warnings of others that we are unable to maintain our military levels because recruitment is way off. (Which is why we raised the max enlistment age to 42 and are now accepting people that we used to reject, such as high school dropouts and men with criminal records.) The burden we have put on military families while we have asked no one else to sacrifice is unconscionable. (And just wait for the tax increases to pay for it all.)

Failure of the Bush administration in Iraq is guaranteed; the only question now is what the next President can do about it.