There. I said it. It hurts. It's my personal "inconvenient truth." But it's true.
When it comes to the politics of the Iraq War, "we" are no better than "them."
The greatest electoral mandate in recent history -- our November smackdown -- has been responded to thusly by my fellow Democrats: screw the truth; let's play politics.
While more Americans die, Democrats play the same politics that we accuse Republicans of playing. They look ahead to '08 and '10, and temper their support for various resolutions and legislation with "what can I put on record?" and "what do I want them to put on record?"
Cut funds for the war? No...because then the failure of the war will be pinned on us.
Assert congressional authority and attach benchmarks and guideposts to Bush's execution of the war in order to continue funding? Nope, that'll make us unpatriotic.
You can almost see the questions rolling around in the heads of every spinless congressional Democrat...
Will we perceived as soft on terror? Enabling the enemy? Will I regret this vote in the next election cycle? Will it be used against me? Should we even bother if we don't have enough votes?
I don't know any more delicate way to say this:
FUCK ALL THAT! JUST END THE GODDAMNED WAR!
If it hurts us in '08, so be it. If it hurts your chances of being reelected, then maybe you can at least go to bed at night -- unemployed -- knowing that you saved a few thousand American lives.
No more non-binding resolutions. No more nuance. No more negotiating. Just end the fucking war. Cut the funds. Do it now. Politics be damned.
The AP, just 5 hours ago:
A group of senior Senate Democrats is pushing to repeal the 2002 measure authorizing the war and pass a new resolution restricting the mission and ordering troop withdrawals to begin by this summer. In the House, a respected veteran wants to use Congress' spending power to essentially force Bush to scale back U.S. involvement in Iraq.
Both plans appear to lack the support they would need to prevail, however, as Democratic leaders struggle to form party consensus on how to move forward.
The stuggle to form party consensus isn't the result of disagreement over what must be done -- it's over how to do it while minimizing political damage. And that borders somewhere between reckless and pathetic.
It's starting to feel like Democrats want this to be Bush's problem (thus helping us in '08) more than they want to do the right thing. Maybe that's just sacrificing the here-and-now for the bigger picture. Maybe it's irresponsible. I say the latter.
We were elected to induce change -- not to invent a new game of smoke and mirrors that only makes us look like we're holding Bush accountable. We're not holding him accountable. And we're not serious about ending this war. Not when covering your political ass takes top priority.