Impeach him!

There are times when it's hard to describe Bush's stubbornness and sheer pig-headedness in the stark terms that it deserves. The Baker Report has offered him a way out of Iraq, but he seems determined to ignore the advice given to him by that bipartisan committee and seems to think one last push will bring him the victory that has so far eluded him.

Let's look at this carefully. James T Baker, the man who is as responsible as any other for getting Bush elected after he guided him through the Florida recount, has said enough is enough. Bush is planning on ignoring him.

Colin Powell, Bush's former Secretary of State, has said the US is losing the war in Iraq and that the sending of more troops is no longer the answer. Bush is planning on ignoring him.

Gen. John P. Abizaid, his top Middle East commander, has announced his retirement and other generals have signalled that they do not agree with Bush's plans to increase troop levels. Bush is planning on ignoring them.

The change in tactic here is staggering. This is the same President who, up until now, has hidden behind these same Generals insisting that he is following their lead and that they are in charge of the military campaign. Now that they are saying something that he doesn't want to hear, Bush is planning on ignoring them.

Even Blair and Bush now appear to be showing cracks regarding the way forward as Blair has embraced the Baker report that Bush seems determined to ignore. Bush will now ignore Blair.

Astonishingly, Bush appears to be still in the thrall of the neo-conservatives who have led him into his present quagmire, and he appears to be still listening to them as they promise a way out through victory. Indeed, they have even prepared a paper on the subject entitled: Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq.

The clear implication being that victory is there for the taking if the US simply apply themselves more. The old arguments surrounding Vietnam are once more being dusted down.

At this juncture we are looking at a President more isolated than any in recent memory. His Generals, his ex-Secretary of Defence, has father's friends and the British PM who has supported him to such an extent that he has earned himself the sobriquet "poodle" all now oppose what he plans to do next. And yet Bush, a man who has never served in any military capacity, now plans on ignoring them all.

Of course, if one reads Frederick W Kagan's paper one will find that, like most neo-cons, he is scathing about the way their plan for world domination was carried out rather than finding any fault with the grandiose plan itself.

The truth, of course, is that neo-conservatism died in Lebanon this summer. The idea that the US could shape any region it wanted through the application of military force was laid bare with Hizbullah's victory over Israel.

However, these buggers are not for lying down. They are certainly not for admitting defeat. A defeat that all but the most stubborn of conservatives now accepts as fact.

What does one do when a President ignores the advice of everyone around him and insists on sending more troops into harms way? Troops enlisted from the poorest quarters of his nation that do not include his children or the children of the elite neo-cons who support his insane new policy?

We are looking at a President who simply will not accept defeat and is willing to allow the children of others to die rather to admit what even his own supporters have admitted. He has lost. Even Ralph Peters has conceded that fact, although his reasoning for why they lost is simply garbage.

The state of affairs is truly grim:

But the president has not only lost the "battle for hearts and minds" across the Arab world, he's lost it across the United States. The people of Bapchule and Oxford no longer believe his words or trust his judgment. Virtually everything he ever said to them about the war — from "Mission Accomplished" to "absolutely, we're winning" — has been wrong.

Once, Americans might have shared his vision of a free, self-governing Iraq, but not any more. He has squandered their trust and betrayed their patriotism. The parents of Thibodaux and Cheektowaga no longer want to sacrifice their children to a lost cause.

Bush is now insisting, despite his defeat at the polls, that more young Americans must die for a cause that all but he can see is lost.

There is only one thing to do when faced with such stubbornness. Impeach him.

For the sake of young soldiers being asked to die for a lost cause, impeach him.

The US now has no other choice. This is an isolated President embarking on a suicidal course, who has lost the support of even his own side and who has nothing to lose as he will never again face re-election.

Polite intervention from Baker and his colleagues has not worked. Blair distancing himself from the project has not worked. Powell speaking out has not worked.

There is only one course left open. Impeach him.

The most incompetent President in living memory needs to be saved from himself. This should now be done if Republicans are to hold on to any chance of re-election for the next decade. The party that allows this man to do what he is planning to do deserve the disapprobation of the entire nation.

For their own sake, they need to impeach him.

tag: Bush, Republican, Party, war on terror, Iraq war, "Stay the course", State of Denial, The Baker Report, Iraq Survey Group, Chatham House Report