by Taylor Marsh
Look out, Harry, that thing on the bottom of your shoe is the truth and you just stepped in it. But when you're in a fight you don't back down. You push back.
Not even the Secretary of Defense is allowed to tell the truth to this country on Iraq. Why should Harry Reid be any different?
Democratic Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, who will chair the Senate Armed Services Committee when the new Congress convenes in January, asked Gates if he thought the U.S. was winning the war, to which the nominee succinctly replied, "No, sir."
Later, he clarified his remark, saying the United States wasn't losing either and that his comment pertained to Iraq as a whole, not just as a military endeavor.
"Our military forces win the battles that they fight. Our soldiers have done an incredible job in Iraq, and I'm not aware of a single battle that they have lost," he said.
Over four months later, Majority Leader Harry Reid told the truth today, then tried to get out of it because he quickly felt the swift wind of hot blowing air coming from the pontificating gasbags of the wingnut army, starting with the chickenhawk Republicans in Congress all the way down to Ken doll Sean Hannity.
Reid delivered the following statement on the Senate floor.
Yesterday, I met with President Bush to express the will of the American people, senior military officials and a bipartisan majority of Congress that we must change course in Iraq.
I told President Bush that after five years, more than 3,300 American soldiers lost and billions depleted from the treasury, we must change course.
Conditions in Iraq get worse by the day, and now we find ourselves policing another nation's civil war.
We are less secure from the many threats to our national security than we were when the war began.
And as long as we follow the President's path in Iraq, the war is lost. But there is still a chance to change course - and we must change course.
No one wants us to succeed in the Middle East more than I do. Our brave men and women overseas have passed every test with flying colors. They have earned our pride and praise, more importantly, they deserve a strategy worthy of their sacrifice.
The war is lost.
As long as we follow the President's path in Iraq, the war is lost.
What's the difference? The first is the unvarnished truth.The second statement is what a politician has to deliver in the politically correct atmosphere that is monitored and mutilated by the wingnut brigade led by a bunch of chickenhawks who haven't provided our troops with the proper plans, equipment, methods for winning, as well as the foresight to extend the Army and Marines back in 2001.
We have to listen to pukes like Mitch McConnell lecture Harry Reid on "supporting the troops"? People like Sean Hannity? I. Don't. Think. So.
It's time someone told the truth. Harry Reid did today, but the minute it was out of his mouth he quickly felt he had to extend his remarks. Why? I'll let you answer that question.
What Reid and every other Democrat should do is get indignantly righteous and say,
Yes the war is lost. It's lost because of no strategy, continual mission creep, no post-war planning, untold mistakes, not listening to the military in the beginning, politicizing intelligence, not to mention the endless, forever escalating fumbling and continued incompetence of our commander in chief who is at such a loss as to what to do that he wants a WAR CZAR to take over as commander in chief. We will not apologize nor amend the remark. The war is lost and if you want to know why look no further than the president of the United States George W. Bush. If you don't like the truth don't yell at us. Take your anger out on him. He's earned it and it's long past time our troops stopped paying for it.
But the truth is no longer allowed in America, so amend we will.
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