What is it with Democrats and their desire to set clear dates for withdrawal from Iraq, even if the missions and viability of Iraq are incomplete? Have the Democrats learned nothing from the failures of military operations in the past where partisan domestic political considerations resulted in carnage on a far greater scale than seeing things through to completion?
Short answer is no. They still want to cut and run, but they've found that the American people wouldn't like that one bit so they've had to recast the cut and run under different terms (and different time frames).
Of course, domestic political considerations govern every aspect of the decision on Iraq, considering that they supported the ascendancy of Gen. Petraeus by overwhelming numbers, but complained and sought to undermine the troop surge, despite the fact that the surge was an idea proposed by Petraeus himself. He's actually calling for more military police troops to be sent to Iraq to police those who are captured by the coalition forces.
How will the Democrats in Congress react? They're going to react as they have for the past few years - they're stick their finger in the wind and see whether support or opposition to the latest request will play in polls and their chances for 2008.
The domestic political considerations are already taking a toll on Pelosi's ability to keep the caucus together, with Blue Dog Democrats screaming bloody hell if the caucus adopts a cut and run - in part because they were the most vulnerable to being tossed out by their constituents and the safe seats have no problem pushing a more radical agenda, even if only a minority in the country want to see the US tuck tail and run from Iraq.
No comments:
Post a Comment