The charge of cowardice is an easy one to throw at congressional Democrats for their failure to de-fund the war, but I begin to believe that there is a different motive at work. The reason bitter controversy over the Vietnam war never ended is because bellicose Americans were able to construct a stab-in-the-back myth associated with congressional cutbacks in military assistance for South Vietnam. To this day, Vietnam remains an open sore in America's history, with a significant fraction of the US population believing that our country was "betrayed" by the media and weakling "liberals."
It may be that the Democrats have made a cold-blooded calculation that defeat in Iraq must be fully owned by GW Bush and NeoCons. Their reasoning is that the stronger the association of defeat with the bellicose policies of "conservatives," the longer America will be free of another war of choice. If this theory is correct, then I would predict the following:
- Democrats will keep Iraq front and center in the news, conducting non-stop hearings on the corruption and mismanagement of the occupation.
- The "Bush lost the war" meme will be developed and reinforced by all Democratic presidential candidates.
- Republican presidential candidates will be forced to accept the "Bush lost the war" position or connect themselves with the disastrous occupation.
- Retired military and intelligence personnel will increasingly provide evidence that Bush lost the war.
- When the current "Surge" in Baghdad fails, Bush will propose Surge II, and Democrats will approve funding for it, throwing another anvil to the drowning Bush.
However effective the political strategy of letting Bush lose may be, it will come at the cost of hundreds of dead and thousands of wounded. We can only hope that this heavy price will buy a generation of peace.