"“I believe … that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week,” Reid told journalists.....
“I know I was the odd guy out at the White House, but I told him at least what he [Pres. Bush] needed to hear … I believe the war at this stage can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically.”
[emphasis mine]
The Washington Post is now reporting that the Senate-House conference committee report will make any timetable and benchmarks towards withdrawal advisory and not mandatory.
The compromise language would keep the deadlines included in the original House bill but make them non-binding, as the Senate version did, and would allow President Bush to waive troop-readiness standards, lawmakers said. Bush has vowed to veto legislation with timetables in it, calling it a schedule of surrender, but Democrats hope to show that they are being flexible and the president rigid by softening the terms. The compromises may cost Democrats votes among antiwar liberals, but they hope to pick up some Republicans.
Okay, WHAT THE FUCK!
If you believe a war is lost, and I believe that the United States has no chance of achieving its strategic objectives if those objectives are defined as anything greater than allowing President Bush to hand Iraq off to someone, anyone else on Jan. 20, 2009, then why the fuck are you trusting President Bush's judgment on anything vaguely related to Iraq much less troop readiness standards and strategic leadership.
He is the one who led an administration of cherry pickers, stove pipers, fantasists and liars. He is the one who has demonstrated massive amounts of over-optimistic ignorance of reality combined with intentional ignorance. He is the one whose commitment to ensuring a chance at reconstruction going off correctly received less of a priority than making sure that Heritage Institute interns got a chance to pad their resumes. He is the one whose foreign policy advisers believed that all of Old Europe would come sniveling and groveling to Iraq after the great success. He is the one who has fucked up.
Despite this, you want to give him discretion and judgment while ignoring your base in an attempt to give cover to conservatives and vulnerable Republicans next cycle.
Be tough, the American public is ahead of you on this one, and they are willing to support people who do not trust George W. Bush to get laid in a Turkish whorehouse while passing out $100 bills. Be tough and stick to your guns. The worst thing that happens is George W. Bush vetoes this bill with the conditions attached to it, and Republicans are forced to go on record again supporting George W. Bush's judgment.
Ending this disaster of a war will be an iterative process. It will only happen when the political costs for vulnerable Republicans becomes too high for them to continue to support George W. Bush's history of miserable failures. Force Republicans to choose, again and again. The American people want out, and they'll have your back. They will not support moral cowards who are more interested in protecting a peaceful cocktail circuit than confronting the monumental failure of George W. Bush and his childish insistence of placing more of our troops in harms way with no discernible objective or benefit.
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