Go, Ted, Go!

What a difference a legislative majority makes! Anyone enjoying the change of headlines in the media? In just the Boston Globe, there's "Democrats Step Up Battle Over Troops" and "House Passes Antiterror Bill "(which President Bush "doesn't support"). Finally, now that Democrats are in power, bills are getting passed and some Democrats are trying to step up and do something with their newfound majority status. Senator Kennedy is leading the charge on Iraq, standing strong as he did before the Iraq invasion - when he was one of the few to vote against it.

The frustrating aspect about leadership is the growing phase. There are natural leaders, like Senator Kennedy, who have stood strong on the issue consistently. There are people who learn from their mistakes, like Senator Kerry - a man who's become a strong proponent of respecting our troops by advocating their removal from harm's way. Then there are war-hawk wannabes like Joe Biden, who's masking their support of the Iraq because 'can't do much about it.' Some people clearly can't learn from their mistakes and its time they be severed from the party like a cancerous tumor in its early stages - before it can spread and do more damage.

Joe Biden doesn't think he can prevent increased troop levels, but someone's paying the bills and it isn't President Bush. Congress control's the Pentagon's budget and 20,000 more troops in Iraq is going to cost a lot of money. Biden can say no, as Ted Kennedy is clearly preparing to do. The fact is Biden supported the war and probably still supports it, but obfuscates the point and suddenly is clear of any wrong doing because he's just an elected Senator of the United States of America. The blank check for the Bush administration is over, whether Joe Biden likes it or not.

The good news is people can learn. Ted Kennedy won't be alone in his call to prevent an escalation of this mess. If enough people rise up in chorus, it doesn't even matter if there's a vote. It's time to make the Bush Administration know that political poison does more than sting, it kills. It's time for the Iraq Invasion to be in its last throes, a sure shock and awe to the man who's probably never heard the word "no." No more troops in Iraq - it's time they be sent home. No more ignoring the generals. No more treating troops like second-class citizens, sticking them on the other side of the world for over a year at a time - then quickly sending them back, just when they get home (just in case they weren't bruised and tortured enough the first time). In fact, no more Iraq War; it's a mistake that never even made sense to begin with.

And to the Senator I get to vote for every six years, including this past election, please continue to do your best to make that happen. Make President Bush be held accountable on this disaster we cann the war in Iraq. Do what you can to make it end. For all this talk about respecting the troops, we have to respect them by keeping them out of harm's way whenever possible. An Iraq Civil War is not a war of American necessity. The time is not for an escalation, it's time to end this: in fact, the Iraq War's time is up.

Go, Ted, Go!