Lets Unite for the Sake of Unity

New Democrats Online posted the following call for support today:

"President Bush announced last night that an American-led coalition would initiate military action to topple Saddam Hussein's regime and disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction unless Saddam steps down and leaves his country within 48 hours. Now is the time for Americans to unite in support of the president and our troops as they finish the job left undone in 1991 as quickly and humanely as possible. The time is over for recriminations about how we reached this point of confrontation with Iraq, and whether we could have reached it with more support. This war, like all war, will horrify many people here and around the world, for good and bad reasons. It will reinforce the hatred of America already felt by those who envy our power or oppose our values. But there can be no real doubt that the world and the Middle East will be safer, more peaceful and stable without Saddam Hussein. We would especially appeal to our fellow Democrats to rise above the partisan fray in Washington, and avoid letting their anger over the mistakes of the Bush Administration at home and abroad distract them from the national interest in winning this war. We hope and pray the disarmament and liberation of Iraq will not take long. But for the moment, it's time for unity and resolve."

I don't agree. Given that the attack is going to occur, we need to increase our efforts to keep Bush in check and to hold him accountable for every decision regarding Iraq made both during and after the war. We can't give him a blank check to show our support... look what happened last time we (Congress) did this last year. Who can say that the Middle East will be more stable and peaceful without Hussein? We are destabilizing the status quo there and the the unpredictability of the consequences far outweight the risks, at this point; thus our resistance to this war. Basically NDOL is saying that we should unite and support for the sake of unity and resolve. Whaaa?

The American public is (hopefully) becoming more politically and educationally sophisticated over the years, and "Rally 'Round the Flag" appeals, which are now flying around like bats out of hell as of last night, are becoming more hollow with age. Since WWII and maybe Korea, the calls for unquestioned patriotism and economic support of our government and troops have subsequently shown to be big mistakes in most cases. Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, etc. all proved to be major errors and Iraq is starting out as an even bigger one. We can't even clean out the drug lords from South Central Los Angeles, but we can clean out a dictator and make his country a nice and spiffy democracy on the other side of the planet with terrorists aiming at us through their gunsights? Come on.