In David Brooks’ colum today in the New York Times “Iraq and the Polls”, Brooks states: “I can’t believe majorities of Americans really want to pull out (of Iraq) and accept defeat. ” He says “one thing is for sure: since we don’t have the evidence upon which to pass judgment on the overall trajectory of this war, it’s important we don’t pass judgment prematurely.” and ” It’s too soon to accept the defeatism that seems to have gripped so many.” and “It’s just wrong to seek withdrawal now, when the outcome of the war is unknowable and when the consequences of defeat are so vast.”

Brooks continues his disconnect with reality. Clearly policy making based strictly on polls of public opinion is not an effective government strategy. That the American public had supported invading Iraq and then the war in response for the White House’s false information on WMDs was not justification for the invasion. Despite the rosy assessments from the White House about the Iraq war, the American public is now seeing that they do not square with the actual facts. We have been through this before. The fact that Henry Kissinger said in 1972 that “peace is at hand” in Vietnam did not make it so.

The recently released classified report from the CIA documents how Bush’s war has turned Iraq from a non-threatening nuisance to a terrorist recruiting haven and training camp. Brooks just simply does not get the fact that American troops presence in Iraq reduces the opportunity for stability in Iraq and puts all Americans at greater risk from terrorist attacks from Muslim fundamentalist anger.

Withdrawing American troops from Iraq sooner rather than later is the BEST option. As with Vietnam, denial of this fact will only result in disaster. America should go hat-in-hand to our Allies, and particularly to friendly Arab nations, to supply the security forces needed to stabilize Iraq as the American presence is drawn down.

As I posted to this blog earlier, New Hampshire’s Judd Gregg and John Sununu are 2 of the only 13 Senators who failed to sign the recent anti-lynching legislation.

As reported in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call, New Hampshire’s senators gave absolutely lame excuses for not co-sponsoring the anti-lynching legislation that was signed by 87 of their fellow senators.

CapitolBuzz reprinted the story listing Gregg’s and Sununu’s excuses.:

Judd Gregg (N.H.) “The fact that this amendment passed unanimously showed the depth of the support this resolution rightfully received, and Sen. Gregg was pleased to offer his support.”John Sununu (N.H.) “Sen. Sununu supported the resolution, and was on the Senate floor Monday evening when the resolution passed unanimously by a voice vote.”

New Hampshire state Representative Claire Clark (D), who is African-American, issued a statement condemning Granite State Senators Judd Gregg and John Sununu for not co-sponsoring the measure.

Below is Clark’s statement as published in Foster’s Daily Democrat:

“As a person of color, I know this bill is an important first step towards healing the long shadow of slavery and discrimination that still hangs over our country. Out of one hundred Senators, only 13 refused to sponsor it. Frankly, I don’t understand why both John Sununu and Judd Gregg chose to be in that small and hurtful minority”.

The Observer is reporting today that it has obtained leaked US government documents that “represent an attempt by the Bush administration to undermine completely the science of climate change”.

These papers are part of the Bush administration’s submission to the action plan on Climate Change to be discussed at the G8 Summit at Gleneagles, Scotland on July 6-8.
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This letter to the editor appeared in the June 17, 2005 Nashua Telegraph.

In today’s Nashua Telegraph it was reported that there was a “voice vote in which the Senate apologized for refusing to enact legislation against lynchings and mob violence that terrorized blacks well into the 20th century”.

This voice vote was on a Senate Resolution : S. RES. 39 “Apologizing to the victims of lynching and the descendants of those victims for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation.”

Senate Resolution 39 was co-sponsored by a majority of U.S. Senators (78 Senators). Conspicuously absent from co-sponsorship are New Hampshire’s two Republican Senators: Senator Judd Gregg and Senator John Sununu.

Of the almost 5,000 documented lynchings, none appeared to have occurred in New Hampshire.

However, it was a failure of the U.S. Senate that during the lynching era it failed to act to prevent those lynchings that were occurring in every state in the nation except for Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont.

It is a disgrace that Gregg and Sununu did not stand as co-sponsors of this resolution in which the ENTIRE Senate is apologizing for past inaction to prevent lynchings in this country.

Stephen Nodvin, Ph.D.
Nashua, NH

The Federal Government continues to put politics above science. As I have stated in this blog before, on several occasions, the Bush administration has ignored scientific data in policy making, pressured scientists to produce false reports, and even fired scientists who have become whistleblowers on these errant practices.

It goes on.

• The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service developed a policy in January 2005 forbidding its biologists from using wildlife genetics to protect and aid recovery of endangered and threatened species.
• A White House official who once led the oil industry’s fight against limits on greenhouse gases repeatedly edited government climate reports in ways that play down links between such emissions and global warming.

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