Thursday June 30th 2005 - As we know, there is very little difference between Tweedle Dee Democrats and Tweedle Dum Republicans. In the wake of Bush’s fairy tale speech at Ford Bragg—a fairy tale in the fact most of it was made up (i.e., the United States is fighting al-Qaeda and Osama in Iraq)—U.S. Congress critters strived to make this similarity obvious, as if to remind us they are all on the same page, albeit with minor stylistic differences. Said Sen. John McCain, who should know better (he was a POW in Vietnam), "one of the very big mistakes early on was that he didn’t have enough troops on the ground, particularly after the initial victory, and that’s still the case." Is it possible McCain is suffering from the opening stages of Alzheimer’s? First, there was no "victory" (although Bush was keen on the idea of wearing an aviator’s suit), and second no amount of troops would have stopped the resistance. "I’m going to send [Bush] the phone numbers of the very generals and flag officers that I met on Memorial Day when I was in Iraq," said Democrat Joe Biden. "There’s not enough force on the ground now to mount a real counterinsurgency." It is often stated that counterinsurgency operations cannot approach effectiveness short of a 10 to 1 ratio: one U.S. soldier for every ten Iraqis—in other words, a couple million soldiers. Is this Biden’s solution to the fact Iraqis are resisting the illegal occupation of their country? If so, he is more of a warmonger than Rumsfeld, who does not want to commit more troops than the 140,000 or so currently in Iraq and the only way to get the required number would be conscription, or bullet stopper slavery. Bonesman Kerry told NBC that the borders of Iraq "are porous" and "we don’t have enough troops" there. Recall Kerry’s assertion during the "election" that the U.S. needs to send an additional 40,000 troops to Iraq, although he didn’t say where they would come from. McCain felt compelled to pedal the fantasy that the resistance "are the same guys who would be in New York if we don’t win in Iraq," thus reaffirming Bush’s fairy tale equating the resistance to al-Qaeda baddies. All of this reminds me of my days in grade school, when we were told the United States is a "representative democracy," that is to say the government reflected sentiment of the people. If we are to believe a spate of recent polls, Americans believe the occupation of Iraq is a mistake (nearly 40% believe the troops should come home immediately). And yet there is a near unanimity in Congress for "staying the course," that is to say our "representatives" want the military to stay until they are forced to beat a hasty retreat, as they did in Vietnam. In other words, Washington is Disney World