This Is Actually Kind Of Refreshing
Scott Lilly, self-identified as a lifelong liberal, takes serious aim at the one-trick pony anti-war "liberal idiots" who simply ignore the political realities and continue on in their ultimately self-defeating "strategies". I don't agree with everything he says - heck, I have a lot of completely different takes on a lot of things. But he throws some serious cold water on those who simply do not understand how the political system works. It's worth a read just for that.
Tina Richards, the mother of an Iraq war veteran, took the time and energy last week to travel from the rural Missouri Ozarks to her nation’s capital without taking the time to learn what Congress had the power to do with respect to her issue (the war) or what the political realities within Congress made it possible for opponents of the war to accomplish. Accosted by Richards and a crew of young antiwar activists in a Rayburn Office Building hallway, Obey eventually lost patience and responded in the brutally frank but thoroughly honest manner that has been his hallmark.
I have been a liberal all of my life and I would take umbrage at anyone—even my old boss—suggesting that all liberals are idiots, yet I can remember more than a few occasions when people who professed to be liberals behaved like idiots.
As a young soldier in the early 1970s, I prayed every morning that I would not “come down on orders” for Vietnam and would not be placed in a position where I would have to shoot at people who posed no plausible threat to me or my country. I was extremely angry and frustrated with the President and Congress for not putting an end to a mindless conflict that was disrupting my life, causing the deaths of so many innocent people, and wasting resources so desperately needed for real problems facing our society at home.
But I was almost as frustrated by the mindless antics of many opposing the war who did little more than harden the resolve of the war’s supporters and dissuade those who might otherwise have become war opponents. They provided a perfect foil for Richard Nixon, who had run out of explanations to justify the continuation of the conflict. Nixon turned the debate over the “war” into a debate over the “war movement,” a bait-and-switch that helped him rally support even among people who had growing reservations about what they witnessed each night on television.
Unfortunately for Lilly, a lot of those mindless antics are being repeated by many of the same people. (Jane Fonda, anyone?) Like I said, I disagree with a lot here, but he really takes a few people to school. He is particularly good at pointing out exactly what kind of a mess the absolutists are going to cause if they really force the issue. Cut off funds for those troops in harm's way and kiss your political prospects of ever getting elected for anything goodbye - pretty much for eternity.
Failure to pass further appropriations means a cut-off of supplies to troops in harm’s way. It means no fuel, no ammunition, and no medical supplies. As the months pass and the Congress and the President remain at an impasse, the men and women on the ground in Iraq will not only be caught between Sunni and Sh’ia militias, but also between the two branches of their own government. Such an action would actually even deprive the President of the funds needed to bring the troops home if he suddenly came to his senses and decided to do so.
Members of Congress of both parties have overwhelmingly gone on record against such an approach. Many of the individual states and congressional districts responsible for the President’s party losing control of Congress were won by candidates who specifically promised their constituents that they would not support such a strategy.
I point to this not to drum sense into the far left - that has, frankly, no chance of success. Even if they read this blog, they do so not because they listen to me. But there are real- deadly - consequences to the anti-war absolutists approach to the war. Lilly is trying, with little chance of success, I think, to point that out before they go right over the cliff and drag the Democrats with them. But with MyDD keeping and publishing "enemies lists" of Democrats who will not support a total "cut and run right this minute" strategy, I don't think Lilly is going to sway many people. Especially because he happens to be right about the politics here.
By Woodsprite, Friday, 16 March , 2007 @ 4:03 pm
Is it Scott Libby or Scott Lilly? His name gets spelled both ways above.
By Gaius, Friday, 16 March , 2007 @ 4:10 pm
Oops. Thanks for pointing that out.