Despite heavy losses in the November Congressional election and a strong rebuke from the Iraq Study Group, President George W. Bush has made no indication that he intends on ending the violence in Iraq. In fact, the contrary is true: news agencies are now reporting that Bush is pondering a deeper committment to the bloody debacle, boosting troop levels in Iraq by as many as 25,000 troops.

These moves appear to flaunt public opinion, with a new poll for National Public Radio yesterday showing nearly two-thirds of Americans favouring a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq in early 2007 despite the threat to Iraqi stability.

They also run counter to the warnings from America's most senior general, the chief of army staff, General Peter Schoomaker, who warned Congress on Thursday that US forces were dangerously over-stretched. "The army is incapable of generating and sustaining the required forces to wage the global war on terror without its components - active, guard and reserve - surging together," he said.

When one man can lead a nation to disaster, there can be no more pretense of democracy. Such was the fate of doomed empires in the past; such is the looming destiny of the United States. The emperor has made a mistake, but instead of apologizing and setting a new course, he commits ever more resources to the failed effort, draining the public treasury, overstretching the military and destroying representative government. His individual neuroses become government policy, with little to no say from anybody else.

The President of the United States has grown too powerful. If his power is not limited, and quickly, he will cause permanent damage to the United States and much of the world.

From: http://www.demandmore.org