Big Brass Ones

You have got to hand it to the President. He is not afraid to say anything, no matter how far away from the truth it is. In his weekly radio address, the President made the following point:

President Bush on Saturday challenged lawmakers skeptical of his new Iraq plan to propose their own strategy for stopping the violence in Baghdad.

“To oppose everything while proposing nothing is irresponsible,” Bush said.

In a pitch to lawmakers and the American people, Bush said the United States will keep the onus on the Iraqi government to take charge of security and reach a political reconciliation. He countered Democrats and his fellow Republicans who argue that Bush is sending 21,500 more U.S. troops into Iraq on the same mission.

To be quite honest, even if I grant (which I am not) that the there are no other proposals, I don't believe that it is irresponsible to oppose the idea yet offer no alternative. For instance, say the Pres and I were having dinner in a restaurant and we noticed that another diner was having a seizure. Now, without any serious medical training, I would not know what to do. Yet, if the President were to turn to me and suggest that we douse the afflicted individual with gasoline and light them on fire in order to stop the seizure, I would be acting negligently if I let this plan go ahead. In regards to his escalation idea, it is a bad idea on its face and I don't need to come up with a counter plan, because the proposed plan is even worse than the current course of action.

However, the President's assertion that there are no other plans out there is patently false. Here is a list of groups/individuals who have offered plans to help us in Iraq:

1. The Baker Commission
2. John Murtha
3. Joe Biden
4. Center for American Progress
5. Dennis Kucinich

I think what the President meant to say was "disagreeing with me is irresponsible".