Feckless
Robert Caldwell pens a blistering op-ed in the San Diego Union-Tribune. The subject is the defeatist Democrats and their plans.
The Democrats' passage of a nonbinding resolution opposing the troop reinforcements that Bush and his Iraq commander, Army Gen. David Petraeus, say are essential to American success is damaging enough. If Democrats now use their power over appropriations to defeat the troop surge before it can be fully implemented, the political risk to Democrats will be greatly compounded.
Starkly put, Democrats risk making “Bush's war” their war, and then losing it.
If you think Democrats wouldn't be that foolish or reckless, think again.
Rep. John Murtha, the blustery Pennsylvania pol and anti-war ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is already pledging to use his power as chairman of the House Armed Services Committee's appropriations subcommittee on defense to stop the surge by restricting the deployment and funding of U.S. forces.
Here's what Murtha said in an interview Thursday with the MoveCongress.org Web site, which represents a coalition of anti-war groups:
“They (the troops) won't be able to continue. They won't be able to do the deployment. They won't have the equipment, they don't have the training and they won't be able to do the work. There's no question in my mind … we're going to stop this surge.”
Does Pelosi, smarter and smoother than Murtha, agree?
“I fully support that,” Pelosi said of Murtha's remarks.
What's building, then, is not only a political crisis for the Democratic Party but a constitutional clash over the president's, any president's, express powers as commander in chief of America's armed forces.
And there will be a constitutional crisis as a result of this effort by Unindicted Co-Conspirator Murtha. But even more important for the Democrats is that this will even further erode their reputation on defense and national security. It will also set a monstrous precedent that will someday come back to destroy a Democratic president. This is madness.
By syn, Monday, 19 February , 2007 @ 11:04 am
Only an insane person can understand today’s Democrat leadership.
By ajacksonian, Monday, 19 February , 2007 @ 3:25 pm
Congress has been abdicating its duties and responsibilities for years if not a decade or two now, and that goes for both parties. We got a wonderful ‘Peace Dividend’ and apparently decided that the end of the USSR meant end of opposition and conflict on Earth. There appear to be those set against liberty and freedom and willing to kill to end it.
Mind you they were killing Americans at home and abroad all through the 1980’s and 1990’s. Long lists of bombings, attacks, killings, murders… and not only by Islamic fundamentalists as that list includes such luminaries as FARC, Shining Path, ETA, Red Brigades, Tupac Ameru, VPT-20, FMLN, RO-N17, FPMR, M-20, Kakurokyo, Revolutionary Struggle, Chukakuha… that doesn’t even get to Hezbollah, al Qaeda, DHKP/C, Islamic Jihad, Islamic Salvation Front, Abu Nidal, Jemaah Islamiyah. Just a few folks out there gunning at Embassies, Ambassadors, Embassy staff, US Government Officials from various departments, and US Armed Forces personnel.
We cannot run any longer and were deluding ourselves if we ever thought we *could* run. All of these groups have let us know they will attack with intent to kill whenever they want by having done so previously. Run now and the Nation will pay dearly as all of these groups start to look at the US with a gleam in their eyes and murder in their hearts.
By Robert, Tuesday, 20 February , 2007 @ 3:39 pm
“But even more important for the Democrats is that this will even further erode their reputation on defense and national security.”
So do you think if this happens, the polls will start showing the american public to trust the Republican Party more than the Democratic Party when it comes to foreign policy and defense? (They trust the Dems more now).