"Your blog has become...just typical extreme left Bush-bashing."

Oh my Loooord, you gotta laugh. I mean REALLY.

Obviously whoever wrote this has never in his or her life ever SEEN "extreme left Bush-bashing." Drop in over at Democrats.com (not the official Democratic Party website, which would be Democrats.NET) for starters, or hang out at Buzzflash or My Left Wing or Rudepundit or Americablog or Daily Kos or Crooks and Liars...I don't think I need to go on, but there are hundreds of websites out there full of inflammatory hate-Bush rhetoric, some of which makes me blush.

In point of fact, I have not "bashed" Bush once. I have stated truth, such as, that he used his congressman father's influence to get into the National Guard and thus avoid the draft and the Vietnam war--anyone who doubts this was not around back then, when there was a draft and if you weren't in college and were a certain age and male, you got drafted. They didn't even have the lottery then. Poor guys or guys without influential friends or relatives who really really didn't want to go to war ran off to Canada or whatever they could, and rich guys and guys with connections caught a break, (unless they chose to step up, as Al Gore and John Kerry did, neither of whom had to.) That's just the way it was during that long and bloody messy war. That is a fact.

The only reason the streets are not full of war protesters these days is because there is no draft. Re-instate the draft and see how quickly the campuses turn to mush.

I did not, in fact, refer to Bush and Cheney as chickenhawks. The subject of my blog at that time was Jacob Goldberg, who had claimed that he couldn't go into the service and go off to war because it would be a hardship on his family. I stated fact, and pointed out that it's awfully hard on all the men and women over there who've left families for the second or third time. Dick Cheney did indeed take five draft deferments when he was called up and said later that he had "other priorities" than going off to war. This is fact.

Stating an uncomfortable truth or fact is most assuredly NOT "bashing." Over on Buzzflash, for example, they refer to conservative Republicans as "Busheviks" and Bush's famous "base" as "Stepford Kool-Aid drinking." That Bush is malevolent and evil. And so on. You won't find things like that on my blog, and if you think what I do is "bashing," well, you need to get out more, a little bit away from all your comfort zones where everywhere you go, everybody you know agrees with you.

What may appear to a conservative reading my blog as a "rant," is in fact, a blog. It is my thoughts. If they sound frustrated at times, it could be because I have a son in Fallujah at the moment, for his second go-round--he helped clean that city out of insurgents in November of 2004. If he dies, I want a clear understanding as to WHY. I have that right. If you do not have a child in this war or you have not gone over there yourself, you do not have the right to "bash" me for my honest questions, fears, and anxieties about the disorganized, unprepared way in which we entered this war and the chaotic way it has been handled by the same people who started it in the first place.

And if you do not think it has been handled in a chaotic way, perhaps it would help if you had three family members who have been over there not once, not twice, but THREE times. My nephew says, every time he goes over there, it gets worse and worse. Tell me it isn't, anonymous, and I'll decide whom to believe, you or the guys fighting it.

Now, about this much-exalted PLAN PLAN WHERE'S THE DEMOCRATIC PLAN????

First of all, I must say that as I write this, it is late at night and I've been away from my computer for several days. There are some things I intend to look up so that I can be accurate, and I will do so in the next few days.

Suffice it to say, there are two points I'd like to make on that at this time. One, THE DEMOCRATS DON'T HAVE A COMMANDER IN CHIEF. THE REPUBLICANS DO. There isn't a presidential election going on at the moment, therefore, the Democrats do not have one candidate to get behind.

Therefore, the views on this war cut a broad swath, just as they do in the general populace, and among thoughtful Republicans as well. Some want to pull out now to safer deserts. BUT THAT IS A VERY SMALL MINORITY OF THE PARTY. When Representative John Murtha made his stand, ONLY ONE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN JOINED HIM. That would be Nancy Pelosi, who is a liberal.

But the vast majority of Democrats disagree with that--as do I, as a matter of fact. We're there now. As former Secretary of State Colin Powell said, "we broke it, so we have to pay for it." If we pull out now, civil war with almost assuredly erupt, so we have to figure out how to keep that from happening without having to stay there indefinitely, simply because our military is stretched way way too thin. The same guys are fighting this war over and over again, and they're exhausted, their families are falling apart, and the budget is straining. (I know one guy in the service who is over there right now for his FOURTH time. He's married and has several kids. This is shameful.)

However, believe it or not, several thoughtful Democrats have put forth some amazing, well-strategized plans for dealing with this mess.

But the so-called liberal media has not said one thing or focused even one episode of "60 Minutes" on any of these plans. No, instead, they've gone into hysterical overdrive because ONE Democrat advocated pulling out.

And the Republican attack machine was only too quick to label all the rest of the Democrats as weak "cut-and-runners" who didn't know anything to do but bail out, and consequently, it becomes accepted wisdom to anyone who does not take the trouble to actually LOOK IT UP.

The main mistake the Democratic party makes, as a whole, is not responding more forcefully when they are attacked. They need to be more aggressive and put the Republicans on the ropes more often, put the Republicans on the defensive, instead of the other way around. They could learn something from Karl Rove. I get very frustrated with them all the time. And, I'd like to see these war plans get more exposure than just the New York Times op-ed pages, but until the next election, when one voice can speak for the party after a nomination, then whose plan do you put forth?

Some of these Democratic plans make a great deal of sense. When I've had a little time in the next couple days to do the research, I'll put forth some of the points here, with proper acknowledgments. Otherwise I'm just paraphrasing from memory, and as I said, I like to state fact here, and how I feel about those facts.

In the meantime, the Republicans have the bully pulpit on the execution of this war. And so far, I haven't seen a damn thing but "stay the course" and "stay until victory."

There IS no victory when you are dealing with an insurgency and a vast network of individual terrorist cells. This is not a conventional war. Like my son and my nephew both say, the same people who come out in the day and shake the hands of the Marines and let their kids accept candy from the Marines and sell oranges at the roadside stand to the Marines, all smiles and warmth and hospitality for the military photographers...are the very same ones who creep out under cover of darkness and blow those same Marines to smitherines.

They can't trust anyone. They have to burn their mail to protect their families at home. They don't even know if they can believe their interpreters. They can' t drive down the road if a piece of trash blows across it because it could be a bomb. One time my son walked into a house and it was packed to the gills with explosives, enough to leave a 30-foot crater in the ground when they destroyed it later. His blood turned to ice water and all he could do was back slowly out.

Tell me how you can claim "victory" over that? Huh? Tell me.

Anonymous, if you think this is serious left-wing Bush bashing, well, I'm sorry for you. This is honest and open debate and is anything BUT bashing. Like I said, look around a little and you'll see what bashing is. Over here, you won't get it. All you'll get is one woman terrified for her son and two nephews and all their buddies, frustrated and angry and seeking answers. And MarineMom, I welcome any back-and-forth between anybody. I respect the opinions of any and all who choose to post them on this blog, and I welcome honest and open debate.

Give me a couple days, and I'll put together the brightest and the best that Democratic thinkers have been able to put forth on how best to work with what we have in Iraq and Afghanistan. Read it, and wonder how and why mythologies get started, like, all any of us wants to do is cut and run.