Because of the schizophrenic nature of Bush’s leadership, the might the US needs to wage war — should the need arise elsewhere in the world — is steadily atrophying.
A week before Petraeus was sworn in to testify, Army and Marine commanders warned, again, that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have reduced military readiness to its lowest point in memory. Those wars and the constant tours of duty they require, together with insufficient recovery time for those posted to combat, is also eroding the mental health of American troops, who — according to military experts — are showing alarming signs of anxiety, depression, and stress.
If the Petraeus hearing demonstrated anything, it is that the first step, the necessary step, to escaping the Iraq quagmire is to recognize it for what it is. Despite overwhelming opposition to the war, the rules of political engagement have either not caught up with public opinion, or are not yet elastic enough to allow Washington to confront reality.
America’s best hope is that opportunity will come in the final, post–Labor Day stretch of this seemingly interminable presidential campaign. If McCain is elected, the likelihood is that the nation still will be debating Iraq in 2012. If Clinton wins, odds are that the nation will be out sooner than that. Obama holds out the hope for the soonest exit. But calculating how Clinton and Obama would manage Iraq still depends on how each defines “soon.” At the moment, that is as good as the news is going to get. This difficult-to-escape conclusion is even more troubling than the sterility of the Petraeus hearings. The price in blood and money already spent — and yet to be spent — is too high for this sort of obscene Congressional complacency. It is time to stop blaming Bush and start blaming Congress.
Related:
Speak no evil?, Feeling Minnesota, What Obama must do, More 
- Speak no evil?
Anthony Lewis's free-speech credentials are impeccable: among other things, the former New York Times columnist is James Madison Visiting Professor of First Amendment Issues at Columbia University's Journalism School
- Feeling Minnesota
The overall success of the event will largely come down to one question: how effective and memorable will Barack Obama’s acceptance speech prove to be?
- What Obama must do
For all the fawning press Barack Obama has received, the grace and favor with which he has been treated is nothing compared with the free ride McCain has enjoyed.
- Where has all the Gonzo gone?
On top of everything else they’ve blighted over their awful eight-year reign, the Bushies did this: they killed Hunter S. Thompson.
- Mod on the move
The Brown University class being taught this semester by Lincoln Chafee, the Republican US senator-turned-independent supporter of Barack Obama, has an up-to-the-moment title: “Whither America.”
- At the Biltmore, exultation and ecstasy over Obama’s win
Shortly before 9:30 pm on Tuesday, a huge roar went up among the Democratic crowd packing the 17th floor ballroom at the Providence Biltmore.
- Reality bites
The war in Iraq has been on the back burner of the American political scene for some time.
- Arlen the Family
So, Arlen Specter is now a Democrat. That's old news.
- How's Obama doing?
Politics, an old cliché holds, is the art of the possible. Achieving the possible is a matter of power. And in a media-saturated democracy, power flows to those with good poll numbers.
- Too scared to win?
What people want is someone who knows what he believes, says so, and stands up for it even in the face of criticism.
- Hoover? Damn!
It doesn't matter how many negative ads are broadcast or how many moose are slain on the tundra, candidates and their actions don't transform our politics nearly as much as outside events and circumstances do.
- Less
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