The Chief gives a hearty “Bravo Zulu” (NavSpeak for “kudos”) to the Rapid City Journal editorial board for cutting through the crap and calling the right shots on the recent maneuvering about Iraq in the Senate.
“Don’t go wobbly on me, George,” said British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to President George Bush after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990. Bush steeled himself, told Hussein that he was “drawing a line in the sand” at Kuwait, and the following year, U.S. and British forces spearheaded a coalition that booted Iraq out of Kuwait. Now his son, President George W. Bush, is faced with a U.S. Senate that has gone wobbly on the war in Iraq.
On Tuesday, Senate Democrats proposed an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would have called on President Bush to specify a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. The amendment was defeated by a 58-40 vote, largely along party lines.
Those Donk boneheads have to be truly clueless. One would have expected that they had studied at least the rudiments of history somewhere along the line before they got into office, but on the face of it, this is evidently not the case.
A fixed timetable says just one thing to the terrs: “OK guys, we can’t cut and run – but, (wink, wink) we’ll be gone on date certain, so just be a bit patient, and we’ll deliver what you want on a silver platter after that. Oh yes, please forgive us for the inconvenience of our efforts to defend western civilization.”
Weak-kneed Republicans crafted an alternative that called on the administration to explain to Congress and the American people its strategy for completing the mission in Iraq. That non-binding amendment passed 79-19.
As previously noted here, most of the GOP’ers didn;t do a whole lot better – but at least THEY didn’t seek to set a specific schedule.
Thirteen GOP senators stood with the president and voted against both measures, including South Dakota Sen. John Thune. Thune said the amendments “send the wrong message to our troops, the Iraqi people and the terrorists.”
Hooray for Senator Thune! As for Donk Tim Johnson, as noted in the last post, he’s a Donk doing what Donk’s do: appease and apologize to our enemies.
Congressional oversight of the president’s conduct of the war is one thing, but it is not Congress’ role to dictate war plans. Certainly, as commander in chief, President Bush has the responsibility of demonstrating that he has a clear strategy for winning, but the war against terrorism will surely be lost if our military has to answer to 100 commanders in chief. We can’t wage war based on public opinion polls.
Indeed!
We can debate what strategies will lead to victory in the war against terrorism, but now is not the time for weakness and to signal to the Iraqi people and the terrorists that we’re going to cut and run from Iraq. That’s not a winning strategy. Will the House of Representatives join the 13 senators who understand that this is a war that we must win, or will they, too, go wobbly?