Submitted by george hoffman, Nov 24, 2006 20:06

In a perfect world it would be pleasantly refreshing if the Democrats, taking over the mantle of majority leadership in the House of Representatives and the Senate, adopted a bipartisan approach of national reconciliation with the Republicans over the foreign policy debacle in Iraq. But the neo cons within the Bush administration and in the think tanks, magazines and newspapers that promoted this war are now going to learn a very hard and painful lesson, namely, that an ideological sharp knife cuts both ways. There will be a great deal of blood-letting in the coming months. Only this time the Democrats will be holding the carving knife. One could characterize this exercise as a belated Thangsgiving celebration given by the American voters during the midterm elections.

So as Iraq continues to explode and implode into a full-scale civil war, we will probably witness rhetorical battles in the committee hearing rooms that are the political equivalent of the Siege of Fallujah. And, Joe Liebermann, you can forgot about invoking the Geneva Conventions over the humane treatment of political enemy combatants. President Bush gave to the Democrats Rumsfeld's head as a peace offering, but other heads are sure to roll. Douglas Fieth will probably be the next head placed on the chopping block, even though he has cut and run to Georgetown University. Perhaps Fieth should retreat further into the university's chapel and beg for the protection from the chaplains. But as Joe Louis once told one of his boxing opponents, "You can run but you can't hide." It's going to be a ugly scene, a primarily battle in an eventual assault upon the White House. I hope Vice President Dick Cheney has his undisclosed bunker somewhere in the environs well stocked with canned goods and bottled water.

Here in the heartland there is a deep sense of betrayal and anger in the air among the common folk that I haven't experienced since my return from Vietnam in June of 1968. And you probably know how bad things got during that era. Even though I opposed the invasion and occupation of Iraq from its inception, I really feel rather sorry for President Bush, his past and present administration officials, and the neo-con ideologues, who promoted and prosecuted this war. Historians will not be kind to them as they were equally unkind with the New Frontiersmens in the Johnson administration on the Vietnam War.

Politics, at least the American version, is a blood sport. But as a Vietnam veteran, who served as a medical corpsman and saw the human face of war, I hope and pray that my predictions are wrong even though my gut feelings tell me otherwise as they did before the invasion of Iraq. I am just sick and tired of war in its many varied manifestations. But I learned my lesson long ago in my naive and idealistic youth,

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