Monday, June 04, 2007

Us to Dem Leaders: Just Be Honest!

The General who oversaw the efforts of coalition forces in Iraq during the first year of the war now says that the best that America can hope for in Iraq is to stave off defeat by salvaging a stalemate against the insurgency. Retired Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez sounds more agreeable with Senate Majority leader Harry Reid than the Republicans who hounded Reid for saying that the Iraq war was already lost. If anyone considers endless stalemate to be a win, they are sadly mistaken. Eventually we will leave, and if we can't do that after victory then just dragging out a stalemate til the inevitable seems wrong headed from my perspective.

Why am I bringing up something that nearly every other blogger on my side of the divide has already noted. Because there are several events that show how scared the Democrats in Congress are of telling the truth about the state of affairs in Iraq. First: In last nights Presidential debate Senator Joe Biden put on a spirited defense of his vote for continued funding of the war without timelines. Biden's logic was that as long as there were troops in the field he would never vote to not fund them. Also, the bill included funding for the replacement to the Humvee, and the troops needed that in particular to cut down the deaths and wounds from roadside bombs which are the main weapon used against our forces in Iraq.

Let me first respond to the notion that the only way to fund the troops in the field was to cave to President Bush's demands. Somehow the debate has defaulted to blank check or starving/unarmed troops. Democrats may not have had the votes to override the veto, but we did have the votes to pass timelines. Therefore, it is the President who is not funding the troops if he obstinately refuses to accept the will of the majority of the people and the Congress. The only way the Republicans have the votes for the blank check is to intimidate Democrats by using the same rhetoric Biden echoed at last nights debate. John Edwards had the answer to this. Send that bill back, time and again, until the President must sign, or truly run out of funds.

Frankly, under the logic which Biden and the majority of Democratic Senators are laboring under, all the President needs to do in order to make a major policy shift in troop strength... is simply do it! Once those troops are there, they HAVE to be funded with a bill that the President sees fit to sign. The Democrats can not override a veto so it's blank check or starving troops.

The parameters of this debate are dishonest, and by forwarding that logic Biden and the rest of the gang are contributing to that disconnect from reality. Just be freaking honest here! Allowing Rovian language regarding "support troops in the field" to only mean blank check is harming those same troops, and damaging to the interests of America.

As for the upgraded runabouts, frankly Mr. Biden... what would be more effective at stopping Americans from being killed and maimed by roadside bombs? Giving them V shaped chassis vehicles, or freaking pulling them out of harms way? I mean DUH! Lets go ahead and make a few thousand of these newfangled get alongs, and send them to Afghanistan. Send those vehicles with another 20,000 troops formerly stationed in Iraq, leave 20,000 boots in Kuwait to clear up any terrorists strongholds which may develop after we leave Iraq, and bring the rest of them home. That's force protection Mr. Biden, not kissing the ring on Bush's hand any time his cronies start making noise about what it means to be pro troop.

Another event which may or may not show weakness by Democrats in the face of Republican attacks is the story making the rounds that Republicans intend to disrupt, draw out, and otherwise permutate a possible vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonazales. One of the tactics the Republicans are thinking of using, (the one getting the most play) is for them to try to add an amendment on Harry Reids statement that the war in Iraq is already lost.

Let them! Don't be afraid you spineless Democrats. The fact is that only the right wing koolaid drinking freeper idiots think this can be won. Generals, ex generals, the Baker/Hamilton commission, the CIA, and the rest of the world, with the exception of the Fox News crew and freakazoid right wing talk radio agree with Harry Reid! I would love to have my Senator (Gordon Smith) on record saying the occupation can be "won". Poll after poll demonstrates that wide margins of the American people do not think a military victory is possible. In fact, beg them to bring that amendment! Heck, offer it up yourselves Democrats. STOP RUNNING from the truth. Embrace it, and start leading this nation out of the disaster the Republicans have driven us into.

Beyond standing up for the truth, the Democrats need to start defining the lies put out by Republicans. If the President vetos funding for the troops, it is the President's veto that cuts off funds. The war is lost, staying there longer just adds to the bill and death toll. Speak truth and the people will respect that, because most of us already know this. Trying to play defense or even echoing Republican dishonesty as Biden is doing, is not a winning play in my way of thinking.

Comments:
as i pointed out in comments elsewhere, ltg ricardo sanchez committed full-blown perjury in his testimony under oath to the senate armed services committee in may 2004, when he lied about a memorandum he wrote in september 2003, authorizing the specific interrogation techniques, "enhanced" - aka torture - and otherwise to be used at abu ghraib and elsewhere in iraq, techniques that were derived from and used at guantanamo... i transcribed the list of those techniques from sanchez' memo back in april 2005, so i am quite familiar with them... evidently, sanchez is either feeling it's safe to come out from under his rock or he is trying for redemption... i, personally, would opt for a perjury charge...
 
Sanchez is neck deep in the torture issue which, is anything, would make him more beholden to the administration from my point of view. That was an administration program and having it go up to Sanchez would mean he might face some hard time. So the fact that he is out there saying stuff that does not toe the Presidents line makes it more credible from my point of view... not less. I do admit that I'm surprised though.
 
*if anything*
 
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