The US House and Senate Democrats have passed supplemental funding bills for Iraq and Afghanistan which, for the first time, put conditions of oversight upon such funding, which past Republican Congresses had merely rubberstamped, with added pork.
President Bush has cried “Wolf!” His attack upon the bill first relied upon claims that the people were with him; “I believe the American people support me.” But a large majority of Americans do not support the Bush administration’s “surge”, nor should they. Next, Mr. Bush ramps up the Karl Rovian rhetoric claiming Democrats embolden our enemies for their next attack upon America “on these shores.” Having lost the “evil empire” as enemy, Bush and his ilk now have the “axis of evil” and the “Global War on Terror” to trot out to frighten us into making ever more precipitous preparations for “the next attack.”
The Democratic bills fully fund our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Democratic bills fully train our troops before any future deployments. The Democratic bills fully supply our troops before deployment and up-armor our equipment for our troops before deployment and for those now in the field. Each of these would be legislatively required for the first time since the start of George W. Bush’s elective war.
The Democratic bills set benchmarks (for the U.S. regarding training and equipment and for the Iraqis in establishing civil society) to meet before deployment of new troops and for our later phased-in withdrawal of major troop. We’ll have our people home, their country safe for their democracy (or not, as they choose).
The Bush plan, however, is to cry wolf again. The myriad squadrons of right wing neocon Brown Shirt weblog echochambering yobbo yappers will join in. “Wolf!” The Bush “surge” will not bring US troop levels up to previously higher levels in Iraq, even as more and more of our coalition partners abandon Mr. Bush’s “war.”
The Bush “surge” uses US troops to support Shi’ite suppression of Sunni insurgents in the capitol area, and ignores the rest of the country, and the Shi’ite militias continue to kill and maim US and coalition troops daily. Most prominent among these is the Mahdi army of al Sadr which has killed and wounded thousands of US and coalition troops since the fall of Baghdad (perhaps earlier) more casualties pour in daily. And what will the Kurds do with their de facto country? Claim oil rights and fight off all comers? That’s my bet, and my money’s on the Kurds!
The Bush theory: The “surge” will clear and secure the capitol and everywhere else in Iraq will suddenly fall in line after four plus years of vicious sectarian warfare among radical militant groups which hate each other and hate us even more. I think not.
If one follows Einstein by defining insanity [1] as repeating the same activity over and over and over again, and each time expecting a different result, then Mr. Bush needs serious help.
Fortunately, the Democratic House and Senate are giving Mr. Bush the help he needs. If Mr. Bush had a plan, any plan, or provided any leadership which made a difference instead of Rummy 24/7, the Democrats would not have to act. I do not excuse past Democratic failures in leadership, but now that they are in charge, they have acted properly and quickly to make Mr. Bush accountable to the American people on Iraq.
If the Democrats had failed or refused to take the actions they have now taken, they would have been no better than Mr. Bush—insane.
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