By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
The commercials which sponsored Wednesday night’s Republican presidential debate featured a legless vet, who lost his limbs in
That point of view faces a come-to-Jesus moment in Congress in the coming weeks. A top military general is slated to give a progress report next week. The Senate will debate the national defense authorization in the days after that.
The House of Representatives is already on record as supporting a timetable for troop withdrawal from
The idea that millions of dollars worth of TV ads can convince Americans that an open-ended commitment will bring victory in
The problem for the president is that the assertions made in both the ads and the White House spin continue to fly in the face of too many independent measures of progress and public opinion.
“The only relevant information we have now is the GAO (General Accounting Office) that reports most of the milestones have not been met,†Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar said. “There is significant failure. The Iraqi government has not been able to disarm militias. There has been no reconciliation. The independent information is that all is not well in
If they can’t, they’re not listening to the vast majority of their constituents.
“I was the leading whip on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program expansion,†said Denver Congresswoman Diana DeGette. “I was the lead whip on an energy bill. We did a lot of things in Congress.
“All I heard during the August recess was ‘We need to bring the troops home.’â€
DeGette serves a safely Democratic district. She was among 70 House members who signed a recent letter to Bush promising to cut off funding for the war unless there is a time-table to withdraw all troops before the end of the president’s term.
DeGette has never supported the Iraq War. But she is not a member of what is known in the House as the “Out of Iraq Caucus.†What’s interesting about the funding cut-off letter, she said, is that it was signed by 18 representatives who are not.
The broader level of disenchantment with
Warner’s imprimatur is big, Salazar and DeGette agreed.
“We’ll see amendments offered in that regard†to the defense spending bill, Salazar said.
What he couldn’t say was whether supporters of such a measure could muster the votes to cut off debate and vote on withdrawal. They couldn’t earlier this summer.
If the war hawks of the Senate, many of whom are chicken hawks because they lack military service, want to filibuster, perhaps it is time to let them.
The mood of their constituents has not grown more supportive of an open-ended commitment of troops and money to
“I talked last night to a
That seems to be the refrain of a nation, no matter what television ads and the White House try to tell you.
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
10 users commented in " Promise of Iraq Victory Gets Reality Check "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackAnyone who remembers the Larson cartoon of what dogs hear vs. what people say, would respond to this issue with: blah, blah, Ginger, blah, blah.
The so-called Iraq War debate has devolved into blah, blah, blah - a lot of meaningless posturing by the usual suspects. For those on the right, kindly define what “victory” is. Until then, you may spend all the advertising dollars you wish to parrot the White House line, but it’s meaningless. Only when the terms of art are defined is it even possible to evaluate the statements. For those on the left of this debate, either vote or sit down and shut up. The constant posturing to no effect is annoying. And while troops are in harm’s way and dying or being maimed, “annoying” becomes “very annoying.”
The longer this tragedy continues the more the blame gets spread around. Now the Dems are being targeted for being facilitators not only to Bush’s wire tapping, but also funding this war, because fall to the Repubs dirty tricks of being accused of being ‘against the troops’ if they don’t fund the war. Our right-leaning senator Salazar is a master one, and Lieberman-wannabe.
This is another reason the 2008 election keeps being a lock for the Dems, is because the Repubs still “don’t get it.” 2006 wasn’t a lesson for them. Look at the Repub presidential candicateds, sans Paul. They keep echoing the Bush pro-war agenda, but try to separate themselves by saying they would of done it differently, e.g., more troops! That’s why Ron Paul won the FOX NEWS! poll on who was better in the last debate. Even the Fox News viewers know the war is a lost cause, but Hannity and the Repubs don’t get a clue.
Keith and Lhk are silly buggers and even
devout Democrats vote Republican when their
scared. Thus no “lock” in 2008. Everyone
knows Republicans value national defense,
even is a few toes are stepped on.
As for the war in Iraq: Victory=no attacks
at home by terrorists. Clearly we are
engaging those groups and occupying their
time, interests and resources in THEIR
homeland, not ours. Sorry kids but in case
you didn’t know it we are engaged in a global
war against terrorism. No attacks here since
9/11 clearly demonstates Bush’s policy is
right.
Dennis Hammond
We helped to create a real mess in Iraq. Some might say that we should not leave until we clean up that mess. Exactly how are we going to do that?
Before the war, U.N. inspectors were searching Iraq for weapons of mass destruction. The inspectors never found them, so we attacked Iraq. The weapons were never found. The reasons for invading Iraq were shifting between “weapons of mass destruction,” “regime change,” and the belief, encouraged by Dick Cheney and his helpers, that Saddam Hussein had something to do with the 9-11 attacks. People supported this war based on fear and lies which they either told or believed. The idea that the surge is working and that we can win if we stay a little longer is no more true than the lies which started this war.
How will we know if we have won? We have gone from overthrowing Saddam Hussein’s regime to fighting against Shiite militias and against militant Sunnis and against Al Qaeda, whose presence in Iraq increased after we destroyed Iraq’s government. We have helped Al Qaeda once again, as we did when we gave them arms to defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan.
This is not World War II, where we had a defined enemy. In this war we have many enemies and we are creating more as we continue our occupation. The 2008 election is not likely to help get us out of this mess, because both parties are responsible and neither one has the guts (or the decency) to pull out our troops. The effects of this war will be with us for many decades, if not centuries, to come.
More republican rhetoric. The story keeps changing to fit their views and the lies to the American people keep coming.
If Fox knows it then everybody know it..
It takes intelligence and humbleness to admit when one has made a mistake, I’ve seen neither from this administration. Sadly, more soldiers are being maimed and killed daily.
Salazar as well as most of the DC crowd have been a huge disappointment. Did they not hear the mandate of the last election? Are they deaf?
Has “The Surge” succeeded in increasing security in some areas of Iraq? I think that qualifies as a DUH. 30,000 U.S. troops would certainly help in fighting any enemy. But has that surge gotten us any closer to the goal of… well, whatever the goal du jour is? No way, Hasib.
Perhaps quickly withdrawing large numbers of troops from Iraq would be a mistake, but we must move them to the sidelines and let the Iraqis sort things out on their own. Unfortunately, I don’t think the Democrats have the cohones to make that happen.
Thanks for your pre-emptive strike on the propaganda, Jimbo … if the Shrub-in-Chief can get away with unfiltered spin-cycle crap on that trumped-up drop-in visit to Iraq (not the finest moment for my own craft, meaning, newspaper journalism), he and his Bubbas need a little cleaning light shined upon their dark and devious ways. This does that. Way to go …
“It takes intelligence and humbleness to admit when one has made a mistake, ”
Yeah, when are the Dems going to do just that and stop encouraging our enemies to kill our boys then profess all this anguish over their deaths?
Try reading General Giaps memoirs prior to posting a reply all of you irate kool aid drinkers out there get all of your panties in a bunch…
For those in the dark about Vietnam this is a North Vietnamese general’s views on how the American (called that loosely)media and the left encouraged his army enough to hang in there until our illustrious “re-deployment” Congress withdrew funds.
I was there for 3 tours. I’d like to speak to that Vietnam veteran.. was he the same type of veteran as John Kerry or Churchill? grin.. just asking…..bwahahahaahahahahahahaha….
Now where is all that oil we were suppose to get. .and where is all that progess we made under Clinton in the Middle East and we were so “liked” by the world. We’ve been appeasing for 60 years with the Middle East over Iserael. We built the very infrastructure and pumping facilities they now use to poor billions of oil dollars into terrorism. What’cha think is going to happen Sparky, when we withdraw from Iraq? The same as Vietnam and worse?
Yeah, I do wish the Democrats were behind the chance for freedom for more people of this world instead of finding every excuse in the book to be against it…Bush bad…bad..bad…
zzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Read the responses to you essay….These guys don’t want improvements in Iraq….at any cost.
Not a single response indicated an intelligent agreement… Most were Fox News…blah blah blah..or Republican rhetoric..or shrub in chief…..Think about your cheerleading………
Jim, what if things actually improve in Iraq?..will you or these chumps.be disappointed?.. Seriously, think about it…I believe that you would be. Not saying that things are good over there, but I have buddies that are there and tell me that they believe in their mission and they tell me that things are improving… But you want things to get worse and would NEVER report that.
Leave A Reply