Condie Calls for a "Stop Button" for Iran's Nuclear Program

I'm sure the geniuses at MIT are getting right on that, Dr. Rice.

Our illustrious President is in need of a few buttons himself. Namely a "shut up" button for Condie who, for a secretary of state, seems to talk and talk and get nothing done; and a "come back to reality" button for his vice president who continues to see everything in Iraq and Afghanistan as just dandy. Wake up, Dick. Today's suicide bomber at the base where you were visiting is the undeniable proof that THINGS AREN"T DANDY over there.

- - - - - - - - Fed up: a letter to the President - - - - - - - -

It's time to change course, Mr. President. Swallow some of that surplus pride you've been hauling around since the 2000 and 2004 elections and end the occupation of Iraq. It was a flawed idea in the first place that you shouldn't have tricked us into supporting and we shouldn't have accepted without more indepth debate.

I think the troop surge idea is a good one if it was in Afghanistan. Refocus our current Middle East forces there and fight the real enemy, the Taliban. An increase in troops in Iraq will only mean an increase in our already-unacceptable death and disability tolls. But 20,000 additional troops in Afghanistan could do a world of good in a country where the enemy is an actual organized force that can be seen, confronted, repelled and defeated.

The media seems to be fixated on how you will look in the history books. If that matters to you, fire Karl Rove, fire the ineffectual Condie Rice, and send your pet demon, Dick Cheney, back to the nether realms from which you summoned it. Replace Condie with Ben Stein. Ask the RNC to suggest a moderate, level-headed replacement for the vice president, someone who neither has ties to nor agrees with the policies of Bill Kristol and the other New American Century neo-cons. And ignore the gaping hole left by Karl Rove. He has done you no good aside from driving you into office--the way one of King Henry VII's infrantrymen might drive a pike through a surly Frenchman or the way a drunk Irishman might drive his St. Patty's Day float into the green Chicago River--and his advice to you over the past decade has been more than misguided. It has led you down morally questionable paths that will haunt us all for generations. He can't possibly have your best interests at heart if he repeatedly convinces you to make such magnificently bad decisions.

True repentance is one of the cornerstones of your faith. Practice it by admitting you've done something terribly wrong. Simply saying that what you did was an honest mistake, then letting your cronies lay the blame at the feet of a scapegoat Pentagon intelligence analyst doesn't feed the beaver in the pantry. You didn't make a mistake, and you know it. If you intentionally misled the people you have sworn to protect in order to advance some twisted political strategy, you need to admit it. Humbling yourself in this way before "your fellow Americans" and the international community will not make the United States of America look weak in the eyes of our enemies. It will make us look wise. And by association, it will prove that you are brave enough to make the truly hard decisions, to take the high road, and to embrace your humanity.