If all liberals cared about was politics, they would make a nice show of how they object to President Bush's plan for Iraq - and then sit back and enjoy the show. The President's plan for escalation is clearly going to fail. It is not at all clear that 200,000 more troops or even 2 million troops can get a workable political solution in Iraq. But it is patently clear that 20,000 more troops certainly will not.
If every one of these 21,500 new troops were Jedi knights who could magically spot and defeat Iraqi insurgents, they still wouldn't be able to put Iraq back together. I don't know how many times we have to say before the dunderhead in the Oval Office gets it - Iraq needs a political solution, not a military one!
The Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds have to agree to live together, stop killing each other and share the oil. If they don't, there are not enough troops in the world to keep them together.
So, since we already know this, we could just relax and watch the president make a fool of himself yet again. Watch most of the Republicans go along like the lemmings they are. And then in 2008 wipe the floors with them. What are we getting all worked up for, if all we care about is politics? They are doing our work for us. Just give them the rope and let them go to work.
The reason we still fight when it is against our political interests to do so is because we have something Republican legislators are apparently born without - a conscience. We still think it's important to save as many US (and even Iraqi) lives as possible. We still hope that we can help Iraq get on a better course. We still hope that America can help to make the world a better place, rather than the opposite.
We are fighting to rescue George Bush from himself when it would be to our great political advantage to let him keep punching himself in the face. We do it not because we love the president but because we love our country. George, you imbecile, we're trying to help you.
Meanwhile, the president's biggest enemies are his enablers. The Republicans, the neo-clowns and the Vice President's Office, who all keep goading him to keep on going. Just one more splurge. One last stand. One last drink from the fountain of self-delusion.
They don't even have an exit strategy for their own plan. President Bush no longer talks about handing over power to the Iraqi troops. He has lost faith in them. He expressly rejected a plan where they would at some point take over security. So, where does this all end? You see, even according to their own plan, there is no possible victory.
Yet they keep going. And when they stir up the hornet's nest of the Mahdi army next and the fighting gets much worse, what are they going to do then? Put in even more troops? Have one more last stand?
We are trying to help you, George. You can't take on the Shiites and the Sunnis at the same time. You can't do it with just 150,000 troops. You can't do it without a political solution. You can't just fight your way out of this. You're just digging a deeper hole - and the people around you are letting you do it.
Man, how easy would it be to sit back and watch him dig deeper and deeper? But we actually care about our soldiers and Marines going over there to die. But we actually care about the standing of our great nation. But we actually care to do the right thing. So, we're trying to help you.
But unfortunately for the country and for the political fortunes of the Republican Party, Bush won't listen. He's going to dig his own political grave, invite all his Republican friends in and wait for 2008. It's a great testament to the Democrats that they're actually trying to stop him.