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I have always respected Senator Warner so it was a bit distressing to learn what he was proposing in his appearance on Meet The Press:

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., recalled that during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt often went on the radio in “fireside chats” to explain to the nation in detail the conduct of the war in Europe and Asia.

“I think it would be to Bush’s advantage,” said Warner, who served in the Navy during the war. “It would bring him closer to the people, dispel some of this concern that understandably our people have, about the loss of life and limb, the enormous cost of this war to the American public,” he said.

The Senator misses the point that people have realized that the Shrubbery lies: he lied to get his war and he lies to continue it. FDR was a much better speaker with a much better message, and was speaking about a war that was forced upon the country, not a choice made by a cabal of zealots living in an alternate universe.

The Shrubbery only speaks in controlled environments to ensure he doesn’t have to deal with the real world. Lately he has only been speaking at military facilities, because he is guaranteed a crowd that will be polite and respectful. He doesn’t understand what is going on, so he certainly can’t explain it.

When the Senator goes on to say that he has been assured that there is no problem with maintaining the current troop levels in Iraq because General Pace has told him that the Pentagon will do it by retraining existing units to fill the requirements, I’m forced to believe that Senator Warner hasn’t been paying attention. The military has been doing this for some time, and they are running out of options.

Some units are facing a third deployment, the equipment is wearing out, recruitment is down, and we aren’t dealing with the veterans in an honorable fashion. We can’t continue and anyone who has been paying attention knows it.

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