CROSSROADS COMMENT -- Bush's Water Boys Doused

[Terre Haute Tribune Star, Sept. 19, 2007]
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Thank you for this Richard Lugar, Republican, U. S. Senator, Indiana:

"At this stage of the conflict, with our military strained by Iraq deployments and our global advantages being diminished by the weight of our burden in Iraq, it is not enough for the administration to counsel patience until the next milestone or report.”

And thank you Senator Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska for your questions:

“Are we going to continue to invest blood and treasure at the same rate we’re doing now? For what?”

Not being hypnotized by the medals on General Petraeus’s chest or the long resume of Ambassador Crocker, Lugar and Hagel, both rock-ribbed Republicans, looked Bush’s water boys in the eye and spoke sense. Were their Democratic counterparts in Congress, their fellow Republicans, and the American people listening?

Bush has mouthed the word “patience” so many times that most Americans now hear only the sour side of the meaning of that term--Patience: A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.

And Hagel’s ringing “For what?” is a question that may stick in our throats as we try to speak it. The sacrifices of so many are remembered and choke us with emotion. But "For what? is a question we have to ask ourselves, one that we should not, cannot avoid.

Petraeus and Crocker may peddle false hopes linked to patience but we’re not buying until they can clearly, fully and forthrightly answer the conscience searing question: Blood and treasure -- for what?