Memo to a Democratic Congress: Declare Peace In January

The myth of the may indeed , and . But it is clear that the right wing is trying to make They'd be flat earthers, except there is too much money pushing missile defense against ICBMs.
It is the day after St.

Crispian's - immortalized by Henry V of England and given a pedestal of poetry - that it is worth reflecting on how a devastating victory on the field can still lead to
Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen,
Our bending author hath pursued the story,
In little room confining mighty men,
Mangling by starts the full course of their glory.
Small time, but in that small most greatly lived
This star of England: Fortune made his sword;
By which the world's best garden be achieved,
And of it left his son imperial lord.
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King
Of France and England, did this king succeed;
Whose state so many had the managing,
That they lost France and made his England bleed:
Which oft our stage hath shown; and, for their sake,
In your fair minds let this acceptance take.

It is clear that the right wing has mangled itself with visions of great imperial conquest. The names of Churchill and other luminaries of war are constantly upon their lips, and clearly worked into their libidos, so sexualized are the rhapsodies of how this war is their World War II. It is a ridiculous comparison - there are no great havens of war, churning out machines of destruction as we might churn out cars.

There is no great counter economic order which drives belligerent spirits. Instead, we face creatures whose cause is sourced from our own acts and actions. It is we that feed the Islamic terrorists, by both funnelling money to their elites, and denying a decent living to their populations.

There are long years and a great deal of painful work before they could even make use of the technology and social organization which would allow them better lives - but this work is not accelerated by denying them access to it. Nor are our own problems made less - the piling up of capital in the hands of a few creates economic imbalances. Capitalism relies on the idea that the people who are solving the problem, get more ability to expand the solution.

Rent, instead, gives more money to those who profit most from the problem itself.
It can be said that Harry England had a good claim to the throne of France in theory, but not in practice. By this point the house of Plantagenet was divorced from both its distant Norman roots, and its more recent swaddling in the Aquitaine.

By the end of the Hundred Years War, they had lost any hold on either, and kept only a foothold in Calais.
Whatever the claim that the United States had to topple Saddam - and had Bush had fewer ulterior motives, one could have been established - it is clear that his thinking is more than Edward the Black Prince. That rather than being "brilliant" as Rice keeps fawning, he is instead, rather a pedestrian thinker who relies on his enemies being even more pedestrian still.

The only act of brilliance here is that by fighting an unpopular war, he has distracted people from the unsoundness of his fiscal policy - which has done little but transfer trillions from the middle class to the upper class, with no corresponding benefit in wages or standards of living. However, this act will not last long, as the of housing values is one of the unspoken drivers of this year's election anger.
The reason that the electorate is angry is that it is very clear that the top of the economy is doing spectacularly well, while the rest of us are not.

The see a political leadership which has . Iraq may be the number one issue - but 41% picked bread and butter issues as the top priority for the next Congress in a , against 44% for security issues.
This is important to the war, because, as with the madness of Henry VI, the deteriorating political position of those who wage a war has a material effect on their ability to have unlimited power in waging it.

This will be taken by the war supporters as the "cause" for the defeat - believing in the meglomaniac way that captains of doomed charges do, that they coul win the battle single handledly, if only everyone else would submit to their will. However, this is reversed - a commander that is that the commander is losing that is the cause of his support disintegrating. It is the inability of a commander to strike the decisive blow, or his willingness to, as did in one fateful battle, charge out in front of the bulk of his army - and to his death.

Talbot's run of victories from his aggressive attacks, in the end, did little to perserve the English hold on France.
And so it is in Iraq - America's run of tactical victories, and even its decisive invasion which toppled the old regime - did little to change the dynamics on the ground. With each victory over the local forces, the ground work was laid, not for the transformation of Iraq into a subject colony, ripe for exploitation, but into a cauldron of hatred.

This much is known, and history is replete with failed invasions and arrogant leaders who look in the mirror and see a Alexander the Conqueror in modern dress. However the road forward is far more difficult. Until this point there has been little that could be done about the invasion, expect to constantly point out the high crimes and misdemeanors which were involved in its planning, presentation and execution.

As of 12 days hence, however, it will not be enough to tell the truth, but to change it. The first obvious step would be to amend the resolution which authorizes force in Iraq - and instead declare that
1. Iraq is no longer in breach of UN resolutions.

2. That the Presidential authorization to wage war against Al-Qaeda and other terrorists in Iraq is revoked.
3.

That the President will have to report to Congress under the War Powers Resolution every 60 days, and that the Congress will authorize force under that resolution pursuant to the War Powers Resolution.
4. After that pass annual authorizations for continued use of force, but include in the authorization that the purpose is to secure a withdrawal from Iraq.

This is a threat that can be backed by impeachment.
There is no legal bar to this ocuring, since one Congress may not tie the hands of another, there is no reason to believe that the lack of a sunset date on the original resolution prevents a later Congress from adding one, as sunset dates on resolutions have been changed before in the case of Constitutional Amendments.
If the Democratic House wants to put the probably Republican, and almost certainly pro-war Senate on the hook, this is the simplest way to do it.

It is what the public wants - an end declared.
Since reporting is required, the Congress can also choose to reject a report as insufficient, and haul Bush, Rumsfeld and any other official necessary to hold hearings. And this time, there must be no "not under oath" questioning.

Everything that is said must be said on the record, for the record and in the public record.
The coming two years will be a test of wills. The side with the greater willpower will win.

At the moment Bush is trying to not promise an end at some future date, as a way of loosening a few voters from voting down the rubberstamp Republican Congress. If the Congress exercises its constitutional duties to decide on the state of war, then it is certainly possible to have the war fought with less corruption and incompetence - and thus fewer American deaths - and the strategy changed to one of exit, rather than empire.
Whether the leadership in Congress has this willpower, will determine their place in history.

If they do not, they will be seen as liars, cowards or opportunists - people who campaigned against a war that they then did nothing to end when they had the power.

What does breed terrorists is the foolish, short sighted, conterproductive policies of the Bush administration. So whether Pam of Atlanta is on board or not, our leaders and elected officials should care.
Because every foolish policy, every counterproductive tactic, every blurted-out snippet of aggressively willful ignorance that dribbles out of this administration digs the United States into a little bit deeper hole.

And the brave Marine, who Pam of Atlanta supposedly DOES care about, is the one who pays the price.
-- Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

(John Kenneth Galbraith)