not often do you let comments slide by you but Mr Turner, like others i have heard on other shows, gives Bush 43 a pass on invading Iraq becuse of the resolution for regime change during the Clinton years. It is one thing to vote to promote efforts to remove a dictator from power and another to drop bombs on the population and send soldiers to die for that cause. We had regime change in the USSR without that.

I don’t have any problem hearing from conservatives, war supporters, etc., and I understand that conflict makes good radio, but it’s hard for me to understand how the debate is served by giving air to someone who spends as much airtime as he can hog, telling outrageous lies as fast as he can.

We have to do better than this.

I agree, though I’ve made the error myself. Another instance of linguistic kudzoo along the lines of “private contractor” instead of mercenary. What business do journalists, in their capacity as journaliists, have referring to themselves in the collective patriotic “we,” annealing themselves to the very people and processes they’re supposed to maintain (think Izzy Stone) a critical distance from. Difficult to be simultaneously obsequious and presumptuous, but flunkies like Kagan (why oh why was he on the micromanaging show, except to afford Chris the great line “the take off your sunglasses doctrine”…) and others nevertheless manage it remarkably well.

Thanks for your point.

As unbelieveable as it seems, we need to at least discuss the power of an apology from the current administration for getting us into this mess unprepaired to get us out. Then, perhaps, other nations may be inclined to come to our aid. There is real power in truth and reconciliation, as proved in South Africa, and we have much to admit and be reconciled to.

David Dehner

The American people have two choices here. We can plan to fight forever in the Middle East or choose to come home without VICTORY–there are a billion Muslims who are willing to assure that this is the way it is going to be. So do we want to deal with this unpalatable truth sooner or later. Clearly it is in Bush’s personal interest for it to be later, (and then he can blame the failure on his successor.) For the overwhelming majority of the rest of us, it needs to be sooner.

Baker–and the group of realists he met with–set down a road map for ending this national night mare, and I hope Congress will see to it that we get on that road. When you have the oversight, you have the ultimate authority. When those charged with managing seem to insist on making bad decisions, those with the oversight become the DECIDER of last resort.

I think what is happening now is evidence that we did learn from the Vietnam error–we learned that accepting defeat can be our best option. Hopefully after this war, we will move up the learning curve, and raise the congressional bar for getting into these kinds of no win entanglements, so that never again will our collective national stupidity be a basis for spreading our violence around the globe.

Jon

Connecting the Dots: From human behavior to ecosystem collapse

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