Democrats on the Run

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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“All we just have to do is look at what’s going on in Iraq, that’s my direction, to do something to change the course of this war so I don’t have to continue making these calls back to Nevada back when these deaths occur.”

— Harry Reid, September 7, 2007.

New Yorkers who listened last week to the speeches of leading Democrats can be forgiven for supposing they were still trying to force a withdrawal from Iraq. We have no doubt that, in their hearts, Mr. Reid, Speaker Pelosi and Senator Schumer do favor a retreat from Iraq. But the most astonishing thing about what has been happening in advance of the hearings that begin today is the subtle shift that has taken place in the posturing of the Democrats from the promises to end the war immediately or by a date certain next year. They are signaling in subtle ways that they know they will not get their wish.

Hence they have unveiled a strategy to bring “a responsible end to the war,” aimed as they say, at cajoling Republican fence sitters to compromise proposals that only two months ago they spurned as half measures. For now this looks like legislation floated in July by Senator Warner, the Republican from Virginia and former chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Last week he announced his retirement from the senate. His plan would call on the Pentagon and White House to provide Congress with a detailed plan of withdrawal from Iraq, surrendering the debate that has raged since January in Washington over what branch of government can determine troop levels in Iraq.

This legislation is different than what Mr. Reid supported as recently as July 16, when he and his comrades held a sleepover in Congress to “end the war.” Back then, Mr. Reid and his colleagues were pushing an amendment to declare next April the date when the troops had to at least begin the betrayal to abandon the field. Only two months later, amendments to force withdrawal on a date certain are not even being discussed by the Democratic leaders. It is a remarkable fact considering that the temporary funding for the war expires this month and its renewal is the only legislative leverage Congress has to affect the war’s course.

So what exactly is going on here? It turns out that a number of Democrats visited Iraq in August and concluded that it is no longer a sure bet to presume that America and the Iraqi people will lose. It’s true that the elected government in Baghdad is divided and frighteningly corrupt. But as anyone who has spoken with a Sunni or Shi’ia tribal sheikh can tell you, the tide against Al Qaeda and the Iranian death merchants is turning. The deadlock in Baghdad is offset by the forward push in Anbar.

This produced the now famous remark of the third ranking Democrat in the House, James Clyburn of South Carolina, who said that it would be bad news for his party if General Petraeus were to bring back a positive report. This has to be seen in the context of the fact that many of the seats Democrats won in 2006 were from Republican and conservative districts. A party leadership that takes its cues from San Francisco and Cambridge, Massachusetts will lead to electoral ship wreck for new congressmen like Heath Shuler, the former Redskins quarterback who won his seat in pro-military western North Carolina.

Though Mr . Reid’s new strategy is animated by the failure of its earlier strategy of legislate an end to the war, the Democrats still must reckon with a base that will except nothing less than surrender. Moveon.org just telegraphed its members asking if the organization should support primary challenges to Democratic members who would vote with Republicans on the data presented this week by General Petraeus. Last month, the organization began running advertisements in the district of Rep. Brian Baird, a Democrat from Washington State, who wrote an op-ed saying he would no longer support a withdrawal deadline.

Hence the Democrats, who have abandoned their legislative fight to end the war, still try at lest to pretend it’s July. That’s why no Democratic leader will call today’s testimony from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker what it is — an assessment of progress in Iraq from the top general and top diplomat in the field. No, for the Democrats this is the “Bush report.” And they are starting to blame the GIs. On Wednesday Mr. Schumer derided the “inability of American soldiers” to protect the tribes of Anbar, the same tribes whom our leathernecks join in battle everyday against al Qaeda, and who have managed to drive al Qaeda from their base. Senator Schumer and Senator Reid don’t believe what they say. Only the Democratic party’s vaunted left-wing base is credulous enough to believe them.

NY Sun
NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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