Why protest?

I suppose I blog because it is my way of publicly acknowledging that I do not agree with the behavior of the Bush administration. I do not agree that we should torture abroad and suspend habeas corpus at home. I do not agree that Iran poses a serious threat to America. I don't agree that Iraq attacked us on 9/11. I do not agree that politicizing the department of Justice is good for America. I do not agree that striving to "drown government in a bathtub" is a good way to govern. I do not agree that supporting the troops means cheerleading incompetence.

The war in Iraq is something I find particularly exasperating. The reality is that our objectives in Iraq don't matter a whit because the president's incompetence exceeds all challenges placed before it. Furthermore the specific challenge of Iraq has been hopelessly doomed. Look at this recent news, for instance:

Clashes between rival Shiite Muslim militias in the holy city of Karbala today killed at least 50 people, torched three hotels and prompted Iraqi authorities to order the evacuation of more than 1 million pilgrims from the shrine where they had gathered.

More than 150 people were injured in the helter-skelter panic that followed random gunfire by militants in the Mahdi Army loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr and those of the Badr Organization, the armed wing of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq.

....The death toll threatened to climb, with witnesses reporting dozens of bodies in the streets surrounding the Imam Hussein shrine and amid the smoldering rubble of the three buildings set on fire during the rampage.

Source

Every day seems to bring worse news from Iraq but everyone in Washington talks as if Iraq is a land somewhere over the rainbow where bluebirds sing.

President Bush does not seem like he will ever learn from his mistakes and I cannot imagine how he ever kicked the alcohol habit with denial like he possesses. I hear admitting you have a problem is the first step one must take.