General Clark, sir, as someone who believes you are a miracle candidate I set the bar as high as it can go for my expectations of you. So when I read Glenn Greenwald's current Salon.com piece I had to wonder how come you hadn't taken the Democrats aside months ago in order to make it clear to them that cutting the funding was not tantamount to putting troops in harm's way. Perhaps then it would have occurred to them to use their bully pulpits to quash the myth in the bud. Instead, as usual, we are left reading lamentable pieces about how things could have been if our leaders had the clarity to be on offense instead of perpetual defense:
The idea of forcefully articulating a view in order to change public opinion -- such as explaining why de-funding is a perfectly valid option like all the others for ending the war -- never occurs to them.
I won't be surprised if other Clarkies can tell me why my disappointment is unfairly placed. In the meantime, people, let's take Glennwald's chestnut of 20/20 hindsight and make sure we don't keep letting Lucy hold the football.