The Escalation Didn't Work

The escalation failed to do the one and only thing it was supposed to do. The entire Iraq policy of George W. Bush has failed since the fall of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad. No amount of parsing or spinning can change those simple facts: the escalation is and was the wrong answer.

I chaired a hearing on the GAO Report yesterday, the report that stated that Iraqi civilians overall aren't any safer, that the political benchmarks aren't being met in Iraq, that, in short, none of the rationales for the escalation in Iraq have come to pass. It unfolds with maddening, enraging regularity: the Administration claims goals for their policy, they gradually back off of those goals and substitute smaller, less easily measured goals, and then muddy the waters hopelessly on whether even those modest new goals have been met. Time and again we've been through this.

That's why the Congress set up some clear benchmarks to measure what's happening in Iraq. Mitch McConnell praised the "clarity" those benchmarks brought to the debate. "Just wait until September," they all said. "We put in these meaningful benchmarks, we can judge in September."

Well, how do they judge those benchmarks now? Only three of 18 have been met. Another four were "partially met," which sounds like a "Gentleman's C" if I've ever heard of one (and, for anyone who saw my college transcript, I have).

Judgment time is here, and the only verdict is the same one we had in January, the same one we've had for a long time in Iraq: the Bush policy is a tragic failure. It's a policy that not only isn't working; it can't work. A political solution in Iraq cannot come about without a clear deadline on where our troops will be pulling out. Only Iraqis can end this civil war, and they aren't - and won't be - making any progress with an open-ended, massive presence by our military in their country.

The White House has tried, with some success, to focus everyone's attention in the media on the report they are writing, the report they used to call the Petraeus Report. But, at least judging from press reports, unfortunately, this report already seems to be controversial and solely focused on military measures. (No surprise - now, thanks in large measure to some good old fashioned muckraking out here in the blogosphere, we know that even the so-called Petraeus Report will be written not by the General, not by our Ambassador in Baghdad, but by the White House-- the White House which has again and again avoided the kind of plain, unadorned facts discussed in the GAO report.)

Look, I know from experience that there's no such thing as a military solution to a situation like this, and no amount of "metrics" can create one. Our own generals have always confirmed this about Iraq. And by the way -- go read all of the statements at the time about the "reason" for the escalation - it was to buy political breathing room for Iraqis to compromise. Period. It hasn't happened. So it all boils down to the same thing: these are more "steps" that don't get you any closer to your real goals, "successes" that don't lead to any resolution.

This White House ran out of credibility on Iraq a long long time ago. This is not the first time we've been told one thing only to learn another (Weapons of mass destruction? Greeted as liberators? Saddam's oil revenue to pay for the war and reconstruction?), so, predictably, instead of an honest appraisal of the escalation, this White House is again moving the goalposts and shifting criteria-- and they are doing it as the moment of accountability arrives. Their response to bad news has been and continues to be: simply change the story. What they can't change is the fact that time is not on our side. It's wrong to sacrifice over 100 American lives each month for a policy we know is not working.

So here's where we stand: Republicans asked for clarity in this debate and swore up and down that, this time, they were serious. When September came around, they'd look at the facts and make a sober assessment on the merits of the policy in Iraq. Well, those facts are in. We need to keep up the pressure on them.

I'll be working continuously this month trying to set a deadline to force a new policy in Iraq. I'll try to stop by as often as I can this month with ways you can, if you choose, put the pressure on the Roadblock Republicans to force them to take a new tack. In the end, it's been sustained action by millions of activists that have gotten us this far, and it's only through the loud voices of those activists that we can get what's right - an end to the Bush doctrine in Iraq, and a policy worthy of our soldiers' sacrifice.

Comments

[GenericBlogger]

Can the Iraqis peacefully come to terms or will there be genocide? I think more of the latter.

We can't solve their problems, it will take a multi-national force with members from the Middle East. It will also take a new administration, a Democratic one.

[RickO]

Sen. Kerry,

I hope your colleagues in Congress will have the intestinal fortitude to now say enough is enough. I think there has been more than an ample opportunity for the adminstration to salvage their homespun disaster, and you all have received much criticism for allowing it to go even this far.

Now that you given the administration what many felt was too much, you should feel somewhat vindicated that you could have predicted the exact circumstances in which we find ourselves today, that is, no appreciable progress to offset the continued sacrifice of life and treasure.

The president is haplessly at the helm of a drifting and largely abandoned ship of state and clearly out of ideas. He has diminishing support even from the most stalwart of his party, almost none from the country at large, and internationally, he is creating a deficit in good will that may take a generation to repair.

All it takes is you and 59 other thoughtful Senators to dictate the terms of what comes next. In doing so, you speak for your country and its future.

[PAPAMON]

It seems to me that we might have a notion of progress in Iraq when President Bush doesn't have to sneak into the country as he did this past weekend. Can this administration look more inept? Not likely, but don't bet against it.

[ceu]

And Bush will be asking for another $50B to continue funding this horrific disaster. Please, sir, vote no on that.

[CitizenLegislatorCC]

It's far worse than that. The next supplemental for Iraq that Bush is requesting totals $197 BILLION (the $50 billion was misleadingly reported by the media as the total, rather than the increase to the original $147 billion request that it is).

And better than just vote "no" we need the Democrats to use the leverage that they have by maintaining (and announcing to the House in advance that they will maintain) a 41-vote filibuster in the Senate to prevent passage of any funding bill that isn't limited to an orderly withdrawal from the sovereign territory of Iraq, which Americans have no right to claim or steal.

[bluesnot]

Republican lies are killing soldiers.

[LORISNJ]

I will do my best Senator Kerry.

On 15 September 2007, I will be joining thousands of my fellow Americans in Washington, D.C. to show the White House and Congress our discontentment with this war and to demand impeachment hearings of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

I would like to make a request of the Democratic members of Congress - which is to not appropriate one cent for this war - the only money should be for the protection of our troops and their withdrawal from Iraq.

I also ask that Congress makes it clear to the
White House that they will not approve any plans to attack Iran.

Please join us on 15 September - we need your voice more than ever.



Peace.

[vippy]

As long as the oil is not divvied up we won't
pull out regardless if a DEM or a Republican
will be elected in 2008.

[NotAConspiracyTheorist]

This administration has proved repeatedly that it cannot be trusted to tell the truth about anything-especially Iraq. They will not work with you in good faith-they are WAY past that and are incapable of ever doing so.

The only solution is to remove them from office immediately. I realize that it is not the Senate's job to start that procedure. Therefore I urge you and your peers to speak with Ms. Nancy `off-the-table' Pelosi and have her remove the leash she has placed around rep. Conyer's neck and allow him to begin impeachment proceedings.

Frankly-anything short of impeachment is just going to be more political B.S. America deserves better then that.

[lisakaz]

I agree. I can't understand why people in Congress can't see it, unless the poster about PNAC is correct.

[Plowboy]

Well, here is a thought. Try reading a lot of Chomsky on the Middle East. You weill run across some very interesting ideas and watching them develop can be (amusing? No, strike that. Too much pain to too many people is involved.) interesting. Now Ze'ev Schiff wrote of a plan for Israel to dominate the region. It involved the destruction of stable states there and reducing them to waring tribes. That was when Israel was invading Lebanon for the first time. Lebanon had been a prosperous, progressive, secular democratic, multicultural and peaceful state. But you kinow what happened to that. Renewed invasions have served their purpose. But, as was noted, some nations -- like for example, Iraq -- were a bit larger than Lebanon. So the planners envisioned the U.S. of A. doing the job there for them. And (sorry about this Sen. Biden!) they called for the breaking of Iraq into at least three pieces.
Well,as I said before, the Democrats were high on the Zionist bandwagon before the Republicans were taken over.
By the way, after that easy three week conquest of Iraq, there was a lull if you recall. Iraqis asked the American conquerors (who were busy securing the oil fields, pipelines, and oil ministry records, and nothing much besides that) when they could have thbeir free election and choose a new government. They were told to wait, that they were not ready, and that when they were we would give them an approved slate to choose from. Democracy was never really offered.
And our occupation looks very much like Israel's of Palestinian lands.

[Nyland8]

John

It's nice to see our elected representatives speaking the truth and calling it like it is.

Most of the politically savvy Americans have known for more than three years now that Bush's military efforts have been consummate failures ... and many of us have been writing exactly that here on HuffPo for more than two years.

What seems to lack expression in the media, and by spokespersons for sanity is that the reality that nothing can be done in Iraq that can un-fail it. There is still a pervasive delusion that somehow, some trick or technique or tactic or strategy can be tried that can un-fail Iraq. Too many Americans have bought into the notion that Bush's failed policy in Afghanistan and Iraq is somehow a military failure, instead of a policy failure. And the neo-conned minions of PNAC are delighted to continue to conflate the two, despite all evidence to the contrary.

What we need you to say - nay, SHOUT - is that the military failure in Iraq is not a failure of the military ...

... IT IS A FAILURE OF THE MISSION. It is a failure of the policy. It is a failure of leadership. It is a failure of vision. It is a failure of logistics and, in some cases, a failure of intelligence.

But it is not a failure of our military forces !! That is what too many people don't seem to be able to grasp. When you don't have a military problem, you can't have a military solution ... so looking for a military solution is a doomed mission from the outset.

8

.

[lisakaz]

Yes, they were given an impossible task and for that no one else but this mis-administration deserves the blame.

[Kabir]

Dear Senator Kerry:
Thank you for calling this Bush debacle by its true name--"Escalation". "Surge" is a spike in my electricity flow on a hot summer day. It is not a word that describes the tragedy that we have seen unfolding in Iraq this summer.

Democratic politicians in Washington­-Democrats throughout this nation --PROGRESS­IVES--LIST­EN!! it is time for us to take back control of the Frames of Our Lexicon! Words are POWER--don't let the REGRESSIVE PARTY continue to construct their scaffolding of deceitful vocabulary. Follow the example of Senator Kerry.

Remember--

IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD~

[cadawa]

Senator,
Please explain to me why the Senate saw fit to escalate what is clearly a war crime.
Please explain to me why Congress has not put an end to this madness.
Please explain to me why Congress has not restrained Bush from broadening his bloody "foreign policy" into Iran?
Could it be that both Parties favor the PNAC doctrine of world domination by pouncing on Middle East oil and damn the consequences?
Our "help" has murdered at least a million Iraqis and created 4 million refugess. I am reasonably certain that they don't need any more American "assistance".

[cuddletuffy]

"Could it be that both Parties favor the PNAC doctrine of world domination by pouncing on Middle East oil and damn the consequences?"

if their votes, actions and inactions are any indication, the answer is a resounding yes.

[Plowboy]

Excellent questions. In a democracy, the sovereign People have the right to know what their servants are up to. It is obvious to us all that some of our servants are up to no good. At the rate things are going one might begin soon to wonder if any are really doing their (i.e., our) job.

[rwe]

or they realize this is a just cause

[gardengoddess]

Senator, there was never going to be any "winning" in Iraq, escalation or no escalation. You don't "win" in a nation you invade and occupy. There was only one way for us to "win" in Iraq and we blew it. We blew it by allowing private contractors and overpaid mercenaries to try to do the job the U.S. military does better than anyone: win the peace by winning the hearts and minds of the citizenry.

The second Halliburton and Bechtel and Blackwater and Caci and all the rest of the overpaid private companies set foot on Iraqi soil, we lost. What that showed the Iraqi people was that this nation was more interested in profit than peace, more concerned with dollars than democracy.

No amount of soldiers is going to change that.

[stellanoir]

Psssssssssssssst. . .

Consider this. . .". . .Wars are no longer winnable in this still new millennium. . ."

Very simply, it's long past time for humanity to grow up and get out of the flopping sandbox.

Revoke the IWR (the UN never granted approval for our invasion), the MCI, HAVA, and every other piece of bogus legislation passed in these last grueling nearly 7 years (with the singular exception of the "Do Not Call Act") and declare a Constituitional Crisis based on 4 severely compromised elections and the continual looting and wasting of our treasury and kids' futures.

Oh and do let "the Decider" know that he's made some colossally unelightened decisions.

Have a nice day.

[FlowerGirl]

So, Senator, what do you propose we do about it? Wait around twiddling our thumbs and whining while the Bush administration cranks up its promised and openly planned attack on Iran?
Isn't there some better course? How long are we to keep swallowing the same lies for the same illegal purposes? Oh, I wonder about our Congress and Senate. What are you fellows doing? Are any standing up and saying NO? Are any saying that Enough is Enough? Or Too Much maybe?
Yes, I voted for you, but I am angry. Are you personally doing anything to stop the war on Iran? What do you suggest that those of us who still value the Old America do to purge this ugly Neoamerica from our system?
Let's get America legal again. Let's make America moral again. Let's see some meaaningful action and change.

[only1Demvoter]

Sen. Kerry : This should come as NO suprise, givin the level of incompetence / ineptitude disgracefully displayed within this administration. Their behaviour is apalling, their demeanor on The Iraq Occupation is consistent with a ' Failed Administration ' SO stubborn in their refusal to accept ANY informed assistance with their screw - ups!! Unbelievable, yet expected as our president hasn't gotten one policy decision correct YET!!

( So at LEAST he's consistent... )

Sen. Kerry : Have you seen this yet? I'll be posting this to Sen. Feinstein's e-mail today.
http://www.jabberwonk.com/flinker.cfm?cliid=hhb3j
( -original poster : Thank you for letting me borrow this link. -ralph )
More to follow. -ralph