Diatribune

The American people cannot afford another round of Neville Chamberlain-style cowardice by Democrats in Congress in the face of George W. Bush's speech calling for an indefinite U.S. presence in Iraq.

Pundits like Pat Buchanan and Tim Russert may claim that Bush has already won his case with last night's speech disguising already-planned and caused by necessities withdrawals of U.S. troops as an action that was guided by so-called success on the ground.

It should have been hard for Bush or any of his cronies to make any claims to success given the already staggering costs of the war-- both in dollars and U.S. troops.
But what did we get from Bush last night? We sure didn't get a realistic plan for success in Iraq because there is none.

What we got instead was another in a series of nonsenses that Bush and his Republican allies have subjected the American people to ever since they back doored their way into the presidency in 2000 thanks to corrupt Republican election officials in Florida and five Republican Supreme Court appointees.

Here's a snippet of what Bush said:

The principle guiding my decisions on troop levels in Iraq is "return on success." The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home. And in all we do, I will ensure that our commanders on the ground have the troops and flexibility they need to defeat the enemy.

Americans want our country to be safe and our troops to begin coming home from Iraq. Yet those of us who believe success in Iraq is essential to our security, and those who believe we should bring our troops home, have been at odds. Now, because of the measure of success we are seeing in Iraq, we can begin seeing troops come home.

The way forward I have described tonight makes it possible, for the first time in years, for people who have been on opposite sides of this difficult debate to come together.

What success? Turning Iraq into a virtual recruiting poster for Al-Qaeda? Placing U.S. soldiers in the middle of a civil war that shows no signs of easing?

Asking more and more American soldiers to pay the ultimate price as a result of Bush's continued insistence of keeping a large U.S. presence in Iraq?

There's only one answer Democrats in Congress should give-- to cut off all funding for the Iraq war and force Bush to withdraw all forces.

Some Democrats in Congress may bemoan the potential results of such a withdrawal based on what they perceive as the effect of potential GOP scare attacks about being "soft on terrorism" and ultimately "losing Iraq." But whose fault is it that we are in there to begin with.

Democrats in Congress didn't tell us how American soldiers were going to be "greeted as liberators" by Iraqis. Democrats in Congress didn't divert precious U.S. forces from a necessary conflict in Afghanistan (the country that harbored those who really attacked us on 9/11) to an unnecessary and irresponsible war of choice in Iraq.
Democrats in Congress didn't make false claims about "mission accomplished" in Iraq when in fact American troubles in that country were just beginning after our troops overthrew Saddam Hussein.

So what's all this about the fear of being branded soft on terrorism and "losing Iraq"?
Instead of getting paranoid about how they're going to be branded by Republicans, Democrats should be speaking about how Bush and his Republicans misled us into Iraq, forced false choices on the American people, and have cost our nation over $450 billion dollars not to mention more than 3,700 of our servicemen.

Democrats should force ever single Republican to answer questions about whether they are willing to support an indefinite U.S. presence in Iraq despite the continued crippling effects Bush's adventure have had on our military.

These same Democrats should also force Bush and his Republican allies to tell the American people whether they support what House GOP leader John Boehner said about how we're paying "a small price" in Iraq.

This is no time for cowardice by Democrats and Republicans who have spoken the rhetoric of opposing the war but have continued to support it with their votes.

It's time for Democrats in Congress to cut off funding now and force Bush and his allies to implement a total, rapid, and complete withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq.

It's time for Democrats in Congress to stop making excuses on why they can't stop Bush. Let Bush veto and Republicans in Congress filibuster.

Let the American people see who is REALLY for their interests and who is against them.

Let the American people see who is REALLY keeping American service in harm's way in the middle of a civil war we have no business in.

When the American people really see who IS killing our troops and draining our treasury, they will see that it was not Democrats in Congress who led us into this mess (although many sure didn't help by authorizing the war in the first place and then voting to keep the funding going).

The war was an invention of George Walker Bush and his Republican allies, and those Republicans who keep insisting on an indefinite U.S. commitment in Iraq must be removed from power when they come up for re-election next year.

And if Bush and his allies won't pull the troops out and end the war, Democrats in Congress must cut off the funding and force Bush to do so.

The national interest calls for nothing less.

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