Quack!

Duck and cover. Remember that drill from the early 60's? Well, maybe not first-hand (since most of you are probably not as ancient as this humble scribe) but our Prez seems to have taken that early lesson to heart. With little bombs exploding all over Washington - Downing Street Memo, mounting war dead in Iraq and Afghanistan, Iraq Constitution fumbles, visible fissures in the Republican Party's wall of unity, a rising sentiment of disapproval of his handling of the Iraq war among a majority of Americans - our leader flees to Crawford, Texas for a five week 'working vacation.' Duck. When he does emerge for brief appearances, he does so only surrounded by staged, friendly audiences and makes statements like, "An immediate withdrawal of our troops in Iraq . . . would only embolden the terrorists and create a staging ground to launch more attacks against America and free nations." Cover. Duck and cover couldn't save anyone from the radiation effects of a nuclear bomb as we naively thought in the 1960's. Duck and cover isn't going to save "W" now. The truth is this. The U.S. invasion of Iraq, and our lack of preparedness for handling the aftermath of toppling the Hussein dictatorship has CREATED a terrorist recruitment campaign and staging ground where none existed before. We are not safer and, unlike our Prez, more and more Americans appear willing to emerge from their cover of ignorance to begin asking pertinent questions about our country's war efforts in Iraq and the Middle East. Could it be that 'duck and cover' for "W" turns into 'duck, duck, goose!?'