Bob Kerrey provides a good jumping off point for a long-overdue rant, here. Namely, the Democrats’ betrayal of their mandate to end the war in Iraq. In case you had not heard, the Democratic majority has decided to give President Bush a blank check to mismanage this war indefinitely! No timetables. No accountability. Just give him the money and let him continue to send our military to the slaughter.
Due respect to Kyle, but Bob Kerrey does us a great disservice. And by conceding that Kerrey recognizes the stakes, you imply that the liberal stance, indeed the American stance, is not realistic, and doesn’t recognize the stakes. That is, after all, Kerrey’s entire argument in the WSJ editorial. Due respect to the Senator, but with regards to Iraq, he has no place in talking about reality, if he still does not recognize why this war was a mistake. It wasn’t simply the execution of the war, but the very idea of it that was wrong.
I realize the stakes. Indeed, the stakes have never been higher. We often hear from the same people who have been wrong every step of the way that the consequences of leaving are too dire. We must stay. We never hear about the consequences of staying. Virtually every nightmare scenario they can dream up has already happened - civil war is already occuring, it will continue no matter what the U.S. military does. The sectarian groups have infiltrated the Iraqi military. Bombings and mortar attacks occur several times, daily. People are dying every single day! And, there’s not a damn thing that our presence there is going to do to change that except get more Americans killed.
We are not in a situation where we can be seen as a rational, impartial party to mediate a civil war, if indeed we could even begin to mediate this carnage. Often we hear that if we lose, they win. But who wins? Who are we fighting anymore? Kerrey seems to still believe that we are fighting the same people who attacked us on 9/11, even though, as a member of the 9/11 Commission, he damn well knows that’s not true.
Fear brought us to this point. And now, political cowardice on the part of Democrats - many of whom were elected to get us out of this war, who now propose to give the President the funding he needs, no strings attached, to fund this war indefinitely. Those are the stakes. The American people want out of Iraq. Out of fear of being called weak, the Democratic Party has decided to go out and prove they are just that. Congratulations, Senator Reid.