If you’re a baby-boomer, you know the title refers to a song by Herman and the Hermits - “I’m Henry the 8th I am”…were the first verse is repeated over and over again, even worse with prompting. That is how I how feel about the word police in Washington and their “surge” or “new way forward”, or whatever they call it. I cannot imagine any American that has any type of brain activity would feed into this “new” Iraq strategy. We have lost this war, we have spent over 800 billion dollars have over 20,000 American men and women wounded and 3000 plus dead. Now Bush wants to send in more, what he will do is send in more targets, we will have more deaths and injuries, and at the end of the day or month or year, we will have to leave. My hopes are that the new Democratic controlled Congress will stop the flow of money and try to bring The Decider into the reality-based world. Here is a great op-ed piece about the “new way forward” in the Benton County Daily Record.

It’s high time both the president and the leadership in Congress begin giving Americans credit for being able to make such distinctions and get on with an honest debate over what to do in Iraq. That includes a debate over funding levels. If Dems attempt to place any sort of restrictions on funding the war — for instance, making more funds contingent on a clear plan for victory — we expect them to be roundly vilified by the president and his supporters. But we’re confident most Americans will see that vilification for what it is: politics. We’re well past the point, as a nation, of writing blank checks for this war, whether they’re checks that pay out in money, lives or public trust.