Bush's "Lipstick" Legacy....

Thankfully there are people to bump The Decider's elbow when he and his administration try to rewrite history. Eugene Robinson effectively does just that today in "Good Morning, Vietnam!" (WaPo)

Robinson unmasks The Decider's new rhetoric about the lesson of America's withdrawal from Vietnam, which Bush's "brain," Karl Rove, reinforces with an article in the National Review last week that included this.... "If the outcome [in Iraq] is like what happened in Vietnam after America abandoned our allies and the region descended into chaos, violence and danger, history's judgment will be harsh. History will see President Bush as right, and the opponents of his policy as mistaken--as George McGovern was in his time."

Say what?! George McGovern?

Robinson sets the record straight.... "the illegal U.S. bombing of Cambodia destabilized that country and boosted the Khmer Rouge, who eventually took power and exterminated those 'millions' in the 'killing fields.' The monstrous Khmer Rouge regime was finally ousted by... none other than the communists who took power in Vietnam after the American withdrawal. Oh, and it was Richard Nixon who negotiated and began the U.S. pullout. Gerald Ford presided over the fall of Saigon. Both of them were Republicans I recall."

Expect a lot of this rewriting of history from The Decider and his enablers. The next chapter in the fairy tale will be the report on Iraq due this month. The White House has no choice, this is only way to burnish the hideous Bush record.... to distort the facts.... about his presidency and the history of our nation.

Luckily we have folks like Robinson to wipe the lipstick off of Bush's legacy-propaganda pig.

Cracks Appear In Iraq Support.....

The influential former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Sen. John Warner (R-VA) "Calls for Pullouts By Winter," the first time he has named a date certain, and another telling break in the Bush ideological damming of rational policy in Iraq.

Warner's pivotal role of finger-in-the-dike support seems over, as he recommends beginning the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by Christmas, undoubtedly prompted by his recent visit to Iraq and the bruising assessment by the just-released National Intelligence Estimate over the lack of political progress there.

Another leak in The Decider's "the generals are making the decisions" justification-bulwark appears as, "Gen. Pace may urge U. S. troop cut in Iraq: report." The retiring chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to urge a cut U. S. troop levels in Iraq by almost half, contending keeping "more than 100,000 troops in Iraq through next year would severely strain the military."

The Decider did not nominate Pace for a second term as chairman, and he leaves his position at the end of September. Another case of killing the messenger like the other generals who pointed out an elephant in the war room.

With the ever shifting goals for Iraq.... liberation of Iraq became democracy with a unity government became the "surge" for stability.... in desperation, The Decider this week made the heretofore spurned connection between Iraq and Vietnam and the horrific consequences of our leave-taking. But, this desperate rhetoric is "Bush's Vietnam Blunder."

Rather than a rationale for continuing military involvement, "his words invite examination of the mounting damage that his approaches to the war in Iraq, and to national security in general are doing to U. S. institutions..."

As the Iraq policy dam continues to crumble, The Decider's supporters.... even Bush's brain Karl Rove.... are running for their political lives before they are swamped by the floods of accountability.