Mar 22 2007
Democrats Rerun Iraq War Disaster
The Democrats keep wasting time and what little patience the American people have left with their BDS actions trying to craft a law which makes them President. It ain’t going to happen. Take the latest fiasco (outlined here). It calls for benchmarks, etc and Congressional review of these marks. If progress is not made it calls for withdrawl.
Well, no one is stopping Congress from watching the progress of the war (which is going quite well right now) and if they don’t agree with the President (who can easily claim progress is being made – the minimum mark for all benchmarks) they can defund the war. As they could now. They don’t need a bill to take these actions. And Bush will veto this Bill – if it passes – because he simply disagrees the Congress has a role in determinig victory and stratefg. The Dems will have to answer why the could not just fund the war now and defund later if their precious benchmarks are not met?
But even more important is the fact it is being sold to the media and by the media as a withdrawl by next August. That is what the anti-war want, a withdrawl. And unconditional withdrawl (i.e., surrender). If the goal of this is to establish conditions for a withdrawl Bush cannot talk his way out of then the Dem need to demand the withdrawl without these lame benchmarks and weasel words about “progress”. And why wait until next August, why not THIS August. I am surprised the anti-war left is marching right back into the promise of Fools’ Gold again, but no one has accused them of being too sharp.
In fact, I don’t think they are that slow or ready for another set of false promises. I think there are enough anti-war dems in the 76 member Out Of Iraq caucus to lose the vote. But even if they did pass it would die in the Senate or at the veto pen. And then people who ran on the anti-war platform who voted for this joke of a Bill will face their voters back home!
Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, a New Hampshire Democrat newly elected in November on an anti-war platform, told reporters she will vote for the bill because it sets a date for withdrawal.
…
Asked if she heard “murmuring” back home from war opponents in her district, Shea-Porter responded, “No murmuring, just screaming,” from constituents who she said were shocked she would vote for any measure that continues to fund the war.
That is one freshman Congresswoman you can knock of your surivor 2008 list. This is a Democrat who will survive the Pelosi-Ried disasters (because we are only in our second month of the Dem disasters) and still be in office next session:
Representative Dan Boren is a Democrat, but after visiting Iraq last week he announced a decision that puts him at odds with his party’s leaders: he intends to vote against their plan to set a deadline for troops to leave Iraq.
“A timeline, in effect, is cutting off the funds,†said Mr. Boren, a conservative second-term lawmaker whose territory covers the eastern swath of Oklahoma, from the bottom of Kansas to the top of Texas. “That is not the solution.â€
The Dems were doomed from the start on this. They have the massively split coalition and a lack of results is clearly the best they can hope for. A lack of results is not going to satisfy the far left. Who are seething that they gave the reigns of power to these dufuses and now they are squandering it all away.
Our military presence in Iraq will be decreasing in the near future, regardless of what happens in Iraq. You would think the Democrats would be happy with whatever success we achieve, since that means troops will be coming home.
Here is one of the barometers I use to judge progress in Iraq:
I look at the total number of Iraqi civilian casualties reported in the media along with Iraqi security casualties (army and police) and the total number of MNF-I casualties. While these data don’t show anything specifically and are subject to being skewed by single large events over time, they do point out some significant trends.
Through January we had a pattern of increasing civilian casualty rates with decreasing Iraqi security force deaths along with a fairly high rate of MNF casualties. This told me that terrorists were able to operate. The MNF-I was being aggressive in taking the fight to the enemy, but the Iraqi forces were not.
Things have turned around since February. Reported civilian casualties across all of Iraq from all media sources over the past 30 days is the lowest it has been since the middle of last year. This tells me that the terrorist operators are having more trouble causing casualties. Also, the mass casualty events have dropped to almost none and the attempted mass casualty attacks that they have managed to pull off have resulted in greatly reduced casualty figures. In the meantime, Iraqi security force casualties have nearly doubled from what they were in January while MNF-I casualties so far in February are a bit down from the past two months across all of Iraq.
This paints a much different picture. It shows that the Iraqi forces are getting aggressive in confronting the enemy and it shows they are being successful as the number of their citizens slaughtered by these groups has dropped significantly. At the same time, our increase in forces is not resulting in an increased number of casualties of our forces. If you have a given casualty rate per 1000 troops and you insert several thousand more troops, you would expect to see more casualties even if the violence level is unchanged. More people in a position to be killed or injured generally means that more will be. We aren’t seeing that. The rate per 1000 troops in Iraq has fallen over the past 30 days as the Iraqi forces have gained confidence and ability in going after the enemy.
A successful firefight resulting in a victory for a small unit is more important than years of training on a base. It gives them concrete proof that they can take the fight to the enemy and prevail. This is particularly true when they are fighting to take back their own cities and neighborhoods. The threats and intimidation from the insurgents begin to ring hollow in the ears of the security forces and the citizens. As the Iraqi security forces succeed, the people see them as heroes protecting their country which gives the soldiers and police more confidence. They are less likely to go AWOL, more likely to stand their ground in a fight, and more likely to be recipients of help from the citizens in the form of information and possibly more active assistance.
The signs are all around us. The new security plan appears to be working but more importantly, a sea change seems to have swept through the Iraqi forces and population at large. There is optimism, confidence, and most importantly, a string of successes. To the Iraqi people, I send my message of Godspeed and my sincere personal support. May the children of Iraq build wonders in the future. Iraq has a great future ahead and the people are finally taking the reigns of that destiny.
Xpatch- Well done! That’s one of the best written comments I’ve read in a long time.
I’d like to double down on the last paragraph! Soldier on!
Murtha can breathe easier now:
I grew up in Oklahoma. Boren is an old name in politics there, they tend to be old fashioned Democrats.