Dear Honorable Senator Durbin,
I write to you this evening from Pennsylvania on the evening of the broadcast of George W. Bush's "Surge" speech. Though you are not my Senator, I wish only that Senators from my state someday live up to your high standard. Since the Keystone State was cursed with Rick Santorum for so long, we have some karma to work through.
I've followed you avidly if from afar & believe you are one of the true & enduring lights of the Democratic Party. If there is a Senator in Illinois who is tested enough to run for President, it is not the junior senator.
And so it sincerely pains me to be forced to address this letter to you.
On the evening of January 10, 2007 our perhaps not so duly elected President detailed to a stunned, nearly disbelieving America & world about his strange band-aid solution to the dastardly mess he engendered in Iraq at the pleasure & direction of the neocons. Even the previously war-mongering media seem truly stunned at the magnitude of the stupidity & vapidity of what passes for his argument. And you were given the task of offering the Democratic rebuttal.
Sir, I never supported this war & feel I should disclose that up front. But, as Shakespeare's character Polonius once famously advised Laertes:
"Beware Of entrance to a quarrel but, being in, Bear't that th' opposed may beware of thee."
Unfortunately, we are "in."
Senator, be advised that it is a common practice for the children of Iraq, in Baghdad in particular to rush out into the street after a killing or violent act & sweep up the blood for a handful of coins. They compete for it. This is their economic development package, courtesy of Uncle Sam.
Senator, be advised that the emergency call centers, or "911" centers in Baghdad log 6,000 calls a day. That is six thousand. Calls. Per day. As you can imagine, there are not 6,000 kittens in Baghdad stuck up trees. 100 bodies were reported found just this day alone. Workers at the morgues are dismissed if they try to report actual numbers of corpses- they are "disappeared."
The level of violence is nearly unimaginable. They have two hours of electricity per day. They must stand in line sometimes for eight or nine hours (as if they are American voters in Ohio, Florida or Louisiana) to obtain petrol, in a country that has been targeted by the neo-con agenda partially because of its oil wealth. Hundreds of bodies wash up in the main river weekly. HUNDREDS.
Sir, please tell me that you were - practicing some kind of crazy "strategery" when you said, earlier this evening, that:
"we aren't going to be sending 20,000 troops every time Iraq calls 911."
Are you trying to appeal some kind of market tested message to the "America First" crowd or something?
I am profoundly stunned that this remark could possibly have come out of your mouth, even by mistake. I know you to be a man of great heart & great spirit- I know this beyond the shadow of a doubt because I watched your Abu Grahib testimony & it broke my heart. And even as a person who has seriously wounded extended family members who lost multiple limbs in Vietnam for no damn good reason at all, I just can't undersand this line of reasoning you are trying to shop to us- this hard line you seem to be taking against Iraquis themselves, as if they invited our troops onto their soil. They did NOT invite Mr. Bush's "Shock & Awe", of that I can assure you.
And I can also assure or confirm to you that yes, our presence in Iraq is largely a catastrophe- no matter how you look at it. But the children sweeping blood off the streets, the frantic 911 calls, the level of extreme & persistence violence-
Ask yourself seriously: What CAN Democrats now do to SERIOUSLY deliver some kind of peace to the Middle East? What can happen now, for the young blood sweepers? Okay, maybe you didn't want our troops to go, maybe I didn't- but they are there NOW. This blaming the victim thing is 100% unacceptable & I certainly expect far more compassion & far more sincere effort both at understanding the situation & far more focused & persistent effort to present the case of the real Iraqui people who now suffer in great measure as a result of our activities in Iraq to the American people.
It is not acceptable for an elected official of our government-especially on the Democratic side- to say as a matter of state business that, "Everytime they call 911, we are not sending 20,000 troops."
Do you suppose they want our 20,000 troops? Or 200,000?
Given the awful lies & shifting rationales this Administration has sold us regarding Iraq, it is essential - essential, that the adults in the room, of which you are one, are careful to level with the American people about the hows & whys of what we are doing or attempting to do, especially militarily speaking.
The good guys, so to speak, like us, want troops out & home as soon as possible- of course. But I do not believe it is wise or correct to say reckless things like, "It's time for the Iraquis to stand up for themselves" & "We are not sending another 20,000 troops every time Iraq calls 911," etc. given what we have visited upon them.
Is that particular pipe dream even possible?
Bush gives us Shock & Awe: The Rematch & makes to expand the war to Iran, and you give us- America First?
That's all you can offer us?
When will the honest brokers who actually KNOW what the hell they're talking about, like General Wesley Clark, be tapped for their advice about what the Democrats can possibly do to stuff some of this chaos back into Pandora's Box, so to speak? He should have been tapped to give the Democratic response. At minimum, a seasoned military professional should have given that response. We all share a desire to see our troops out of harm's way. I know your motivation came from a good place.
I ask you to look into your own heart & ask yourself why & how you found yourself saying this awful thing about us not answering Iraq's 911 calls.
Please, take far greater care as we will hold you to the high standard of word & deed that we are accustomed to receiving from you.
I hope to see you in person in Chicago YearlyKos gathering.
-Bluemoon
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some of these stats about Baghdad are based on a conversation I had with a family member about an Anderson Cooper 360 program or programs that I did not watch so I apologize if I got anything wrong there