Pacific Views

Out In Six Months

If Feingold had his way:

... And let me remind my colleagues on this side of the aisle -- I'm so pleased we're in the majority again -- but we were in the majority when this war was approved.

We have a responsibility as Democrats and Republicans in the Congress of the United States to stop this thing now. And these proposals simply don't do it.

... And the latest taboo is that we can't talk about using the power of the purse; that we can't use our constitutional authority that Senator Boxer just talked about, and many times it's been done in the past; that somehow we're going to endanger the troops.

Well, we have successful redeployed for military operations without endangering troops many times. But yet I see this committee and this Senate once again allowing itself to be intimidated into not talking about our real powers and our responsibility.

So I've introduced legislation in the past with some of my colleagues that would say, "Six months after enactment, the troops will be redeployed."

... What we need to add now is the enforcement, the teeth. So I will shortly propose that we use our authorities under the Constitution, our authorities to prohibit funding at a date certain to get this thing done.

... This is not a time for legislative nuancing. This is not a time for trying to forge a compromise that everybody can be a part of.

This is a time to stop the needless deaths of American troops in Iraq. This is a time to refocus our country in the fight against those who attacked us on 9/11. ...

I hope he gets that proposal to the floor. Any Republicans who would like to get the millstone of supporting this miserably unpopular war off the necks of their re-election efforts would do well to vote for it. Any Democrats who worry that it might be unpopular need to stop listening to the press and start listening to the public.

With all possible speed, the United States needs to be out of Iraq. Our presence there hasn't prevented civil war. It hasn't given the Iraqis a transparent, secular, representative government. It hasn't protected Iraqi civilians from needing to rely on gangs, ad hoc militias and warlords to defend them from neighboring suburbs. It hasn't prevented almost satanic levels of violence, with kidnappings, torture, public murder and executions having long become normative.

US troops have been there the whole time; on patrol, fighting pitched battles, carrying out whatever missions their commanders send them on. The situation has plummeted from bad to worse, to worse again. It isn't their fault. They were set an impossible task and given terrible directions. Let's bring them home to their families and give the Iraqis their country back.

Want a victory? Consider it a moral victory to be able to admit to a mistake and change course. That's not only bloody difficult, it has the advantage of being worth doing. Unlike pointlessly invading and occupying a defenseless country with a one-buttocked plan.

Posted by natasha at January 26, 2007 09:49 PM | Iraq | TrackBack(1) | Technorati links |