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Digby has a fantastic post on the recent James Fallows article in The Atlantic regarding stopping escalation in Iraq and also stopping the ramp up to war with Iran that keeps rumbling out of the Bush Administration with all the force of the neocon hunger behind it.  As Digby says:

In a sane world, the congress would move very quickly on this before that notion jells. But it won't, because they believe they must allow the president to have all "options on the table," --- a "duty" which Republicans repeatedly failed to fulfill when Clinton was in office and which an earlier group of Democrats understood to be nonsense. Still, that seems to be where they are, at least with respect to Iran. Not only are they not prepared to stop it, they are either silent on the issue or actively supporting the premise upon which the president's argument is built.

Still, we must at least begin to make this case and this James Fallows article is an excellent first step. I particularly liked this part, because it is absolutely true and shows the seriousness of the danger we are in:

If we could trust the Administration’s ability to judge America’s rational self-interest, there would be no need to constrain its threatening gestures toward Iran. Everyone would understand that this was part of the negotiation process; no one would worry that the Administration would finally take a step as self-destructive as beginning or inviting a war.

But no one can any longer trust the Administration to recognize and defend America’s rational self-interest — not when the President says he will carry out a policy even if opposed by everyone except his wife and dog, not when the Vice President refuses to concede any mistake or misjudgment in the handling of Iraq.

We are dealing with an administration that handled the overriding message of the mid-term election by doing exactly the opposite and escalating the war. They are not responsive to anything, not even political considerations. They are obsessed with their own legacy and if that means selling their own party down the river, they will do that too. There is nothing to stop them.

But there is something to stop them. A welling up of sentiment from the voters of this nation, so strong that it cannot be ignored.  If ever there were a time to stand up and be counted -- to tell your elected representatives exactly how you feel and why -- this is it.

If for no other reason than this, as Digby says:

As Bush and Cheney get more and more unpopular, their legacy becomes more and more predicated on the fact that they did the unpopular thing for the greater good. The more unpopular they get the more they have to prove.

Think for a moment about that.  And then start writing a letter to fax to your members of Congress.  Give their offices a call and register your thoughts.  Send a few e-mails to local offices. Show up at a town meeting or to a local office and speak to someone in person about this.  Write a letter to the editor -- make it concise and on point and free of invective because the object is to get it published.  Send in questions to online media chats.  Talk to the folks at the beauty salon or the barber shop or at work or at the family dinner.  Call in to your local talk radio.  Call into C-Span.  Send everyone you know an e-mail with a link to the Fallows article and ask them to do the same. 

Do something.  And do it now.

Just this once, shouldn't we all take a step back and ask for proof before we rush off to another ill-planned F.U.B.A.R. of a war?  Just this once, oughtn't we be skeptical of the very same pronouncements from the very same people who lied to us using the very same words the last time?  Just this once, shouldn't we try every possible avenue -- including actually engaging in meaningful diplomacy -- before we send other peoples' children off to fight in a war of George Bush's choice?

Because the bottom line is this:  do you trust George Bush to be making the correct decisions for this nation, based on his abysmal record of repeated failures, piss poor record of planning for any and all contingencies, and the waste and fraud and rampant cronyism that gets attached to anything he and his Administration have touched?  Yeah, me neither. 

Contact your elected representatives now (the Capitol switchboard number is (202) 224-3121, but if you click the prior link, you can find a direct dial number for your elected representatives).  Let them know that you expect them to do their jobs -- and remind them that they work for us, and not the other way around.  It's time to dial for spines again, kids -- start working on your faxes and talking points today.  I'd start with Digby and Fallows.  And don't sit back and think everyone else will take the ball and run with it this time and you won't have to worry about it -- every person reading this ought to stand up and be counted.  We need you, every single one of you.  Please, take the time to do something today.