These are perilous times

Where much can go wrong and will. Digby warns us:

Here's a rundown from the German papers on the Iraq escalation votes:

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"For four years any criticism of the war was seen as a betrayal of the troops. This taboo has now been broken ... the vote marks a decisive change in American politics.

"The Bush Administration has not only forfeited its credibility internationally -- now it is also fighting a losing battle on the home front.

"One could be tempted to feel Schadenfreude about the spectacular failure of this president. But a US government that has suffered such a loss of authority is a weakness for the whole West. Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iran and North Korea are the big conflicts in international politics. Bush -- morally disavowed and increasingly abandoned by his own party colleagues -- will not be able to do much to solve them. So who will?"

It is a huge problem and one that will not be solved by Joe Lieberman admonishing Democrats to start goose stepping behind the president. Nobody believes anything either he or Bush say. In fact, our greatest hope for getting through this unstable historical juncture is for Democratic presidential candidates to start letting the world know what they will do to change course. We are in a very dangerous time in which people both in our own government and in the outside world are likely to make terrible misjudgments. The world needs to know not only that the US Congress is engaged in oversight, but that the most likely subsequent presidential leadership understands the stakes.