The Democrats are playing politics. Bush will reject the bill. Why. According to the NYT, "The bill says that American troops must begin withdrawing from Iraq by Oct. 1. " So, that's a time line. Bush will veto.
The politics has its place, and, so long as the Democrats play politics, soldiers will remain in that place, Iraq.
The Democrats, most notable in this case are Pelosi, Obama and Clinton, would do better to consider a bill which has a chance of getting passed. Instead, they are posturing the Republicans negatively, useful for the 2008 elections.
Who suffers? Every soldier who might have lived.
see: Democrats Prepare to Send Bush Iraq Spending Bill
3 comments:
Seems to me that it's not all soldiers who are affected- it's only the ones on the American side. What we're arguing for is money being sent to them so they can continue to kill. There's hardly any justice in that.
Their deaths have been, and will be, sad. So are the deaths of their enemies. What good is there in funding one side so it can kill the other?
American soldiers made a choice to be there, and a choice to stay. Yes, they would face prosecution if they left, or didn't go. But that was still a choice- doing what is moral and loving often has consequences.
But imagine if the American soldiers in Iraq decided en mass one day, to stop fighting, and stop the murder, and return. Could an entire army be prosecuted for going AWOL?
That a better resolution is required - there is no question. Troops who stay without the proper resources is bad. Bringing troops home, leaving probably carnage behind is bad. Any delay in resolving the situation is bad.
I am personally in support of the military's involvement in trying to provide free choice for Iraqi citizens. That's theoretical support, however. It could have been better than it is. Outside of diplomatic blunders (fed, in part, by the Democrats, but plenty are owned by Bush himself), there are more serious troubles than Bush's approval rating.
There has been, as it seems clear to almost everyone (including GWB) poor planning for the long term, and an underestimation of how Islam is being used to manipulate people. This may be a war with implications other than freedom (greed, oil, power - You pick which side has which intent, and then, pick the other side having a concurrent intent), but there is tremendous Islamic courting here. This will not change when we leave Iraq.
When Christians are shouted down in the public arena, while, as at the community college where I live, the Muslim Student Associations gives a presentation "Jesus was a Muslim," happens without retort, it is no surprise that there is misunderstanding about the long-term issue of Iraq.
One big question will remain in 2008, "What now?" The next president will be confounded with the same issues as Bush has been dealing with. However, Bush had 9-11 thrust upon him. Inadequately prepared, he made some bad decisions. I am not confident that his successor, from whichever party, will be apt to choose rightly. We may exit Iraq quickly or not, but the terroristic threat of militant Muslims will continue. That we entered Iraq was not why they murdered 3,000 people on 9-11, and that we leave Iraq will not cause the termination of their hate.
I am glad I am not president, or a member of Congress. Pontificating on a blog is easier than being responsible to the hard question of "What now."
I think the best way for us to fight terrorism over there is to immediately stop all security and offensive actions, and invest huge-scale in community development and encouraging the Iraqis to develop themselves. Yes, this would result in an immediate dramatic rise in U.S. deaths, but in the long-term, it would result in a significant loss to both U.S. lives and Iraqi lives. Terrorism doesn't arrive in a vaccuum; it's not like they "hate our way of life". They object to our materialism, objectification in sexuality, treatment of the Palestinians, and placement of troops in Saudi Arabia- those are the biggest issues. The way to begin to resolve those issues is to start to care for and love our enemies, to disburse our money back to the 2/3rds World, like Iraq, and stop the export of values that dehumanize women.
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