Harry Reid displayed classic Democratic plantation mentality on Sunday. When asked if he would support putting more troops in Iraq, he said he would as long as the president promised him it would be temporary in nature. I am sure the president will promise him that. And then the president will share a hearty, throaty laugh with Dick Cheney over how easy the Democrats are to push around.
Democrats need to shake the cobwebs out and realize they have been given power. They weren't given power so that they can continue to bow down to the absurd ideas of this out of control administration.
For too long, Democrats have taken direction from the Republicans on what constitutes strength on national security matters. The country no longer believes that the Republicans have a strong or coherent national security policy. Not only do the Republicans need to come to terms with that, but so do the Democrats.
You won. You really won. And you didn't win because the country thought Bush was right. You won because they thought YOU were right. Now, get used to it.
Everybody keeps talking about this troop "surge." Yet no one seems to be able to tell us exactly what this surge will accomplish. So, I'll say it in plain terms - it will accomplish dick.
For those not familiar with that vernacular, that means it won't accomplish a damn thing. On what planet does an extra 30,000 American troops get the Shiites and the Sunnis to stop hating each other? How many times do we have to tell these people that Iraq needs a POLITICAL SOLUTION, not a military one?
If you combined all the armies of the world and brought them to Iraq and miraculously placated the country temporarily, you would still have the same exact problems the minute they all leave. Why? Because we don't have a military problem, we have a POLITICAL PROBLEM.
The Sunnis and the Shiites don't believe in a unified Iraq. They believe in protecting their own sect. All our wishful thinking and all of our troops aren't going to change that fact.
Now, I understand that President Bush will probably never get this through his thick head. But I was hoping the Democrats understood this and understood that they needed to do whatever was necessary to redirect the president. If Reid did not misspeak, then they do not have this understanding at all. They still think they have to kowtow to this clown to appear tough on national security.
The guy squirts water out of a flower on his lapel. The big floppy red shoes and the red nose are supposed to be tip-offs. The man is a clown. Stop going near his flower, he is going to squirt you in the face again.
Here's what Senator Reid should have said, "Are you kidding me? Are we going to allow more troops to go into this quagmire without any plan for solving the political problems in Iraq? Hell no. The American people did not stutter. They were not equivocal. They sent a message loud and clear - George Bush doesn't know what he's doing in Iraq. And we're not going to send in another 30,000 troops to sit in the middle of a civil war. George Bush can't even define what their mission would be. There is no military mission in Iraq. Until George Bush figures that out and finds a way to get the Iraqis to settle on a political solution, we're not going to send in one more soldier or work with him on any other absurd request he has."
I can't believe the leader of the Democrats in the Senate would even contemplate sending in more troops to Iraq when there is no clearly defined mission. Once you agree to send in more guys, you have to agree to give the administration more time to make that plan work. And since it's not a real plan, you'll sit around in the same morass for another six to eighteen months. Except this time, you will also be responsible.
We have to take the training wheels off now and the Democrats have to learn how to steer without taking direction from the clueless right. This is the time to stand up. Not the time to agree to more terrible Bush ideas on Iraq.