MURTHA SPEAKS

We have a crisis of confidence in the war. Read Congressman Murtha’s speech. (Hat tip: Rod.) He’s no MoveOn lefty. The president and vice-president are fighting back on the issue of their alleged deception before the war. As I have written here, I believe that the WMD intelligence fiasco was an honest and forgivable mistake, not a conspiracy or pre-meditated deception. The worst the administration was guilty of was occasional rhetorical excess in a very emotional period. But I do believe that the failure to prepare for the post-invasion phase, the far-too-late acknowledgment of the insurgency, the amateurism and pig-headedness of the early occupation, and the sanctioning of torture: all these required even those of us who believed in the war to call the administration on its incompetence and arrogance. What we need now is a very clear indication that our effort to train the Iraqi military is progressing, that the troops are well-equipped and cared for and that the political process isn’t degenerating into sectarianism. The fact that Bush’s and Cheney’s recent fight-back speeches were not about these vital matters is not a sign of their regaining strength. it’s a sign of their continuing and deepening vulnerability.