In his press conference of April 14, President Bush said repeatedly, "We must stay the course in Iraq," and Democratic challenger John Kerry agreed with him, arguing only that he would do it better. The problem is that, as former Centcom commander Gen. Anthony Zinni said to 60 Minutes, "The course is headed over Niagara Falls." Gen. Joseph Hoar, a former head of the Marine Corps, has remarked, "I believe we are absolutely on the brink of failure. We are looking into the abyss." Zinni and Hoar are both retired officers. But the active-duty Commander of the 82nd Airborne, Army Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, when asked by the Washington Post whether he believes the United States is losing the war in Iraq, replied, "I think strategically, we are." Marine Maj. Gen. William Whitlow wrote in an op-ed for the Washington Post, "A principal tenet of forming a strategy - have a 'war termination' phase - was neglected? It is time for the president to ask those responsible for the flawed Iraqi policy - civilian and military - to resign from public service."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/061304E.shtml

I believe that if the Republic is to be saved it will be as a result of an upsurge of direct democracy. A little more than a year ago some ten million people in all the genuine democracies on earth demonstrated against the war in Iraq, against George Bush, and for democracy. These were the largest demonstrations in British history - two million people in London - but they also included 400,000 people in New York City and a million each in Berlin, Madrid, and Rome. In late April we saw a powerful demonstration in Washington DC of over a million for a woman's right to choose and to encourage younger women to vote. A half-million demonstrated in Rome last Friday against a visit by our Boy Emperor.