Are there any people left

who really buy this horseshit?

In a free and democratic society, "transparency" is crucial. The electorate needs to understand the "what, how, and why?" of government decisionmaking so that they -- electorate, as the sovereign -- can decide whether the government is actually doing what they want it to do.

Unfortunately, the only thing transparent about the Bush Administration is the transparently stooopid talking points they keep pumping out to justify whatever horrible policies need to be justified at any given time.

Example: According to this story, Bush's Independence Day speech (in addition to making reprehensible comparisons between the Iraq War and the American Revolution -- an impeachable offense in and of itself, if you ask me -- featured the following quote: "Withdrawing our troops prematurely based on politics, not on the advice and recommendation of our military commanders, would not be in our national interest."

To even respond to this, I feel like I have to adopt my speaking-to-third-graders voice. A decision to enter, continue, or withdraw from an armed conflict is A PURELY POLITICAL DECISION. Always has been, always will be. How a conflict is conducted, strategery-wise, is probably best left to military commanders. But to suggest that the decision to withdraw from the war has somehow been delegated to the military is just bizarre.