As Kagro X notes in a front page post, the media has adopted Republican leadership spin that "something will have to be done about Iraq" by September if the "surge" fails to show results.
And Democrats seem ready to play along with this charade, based on the quote from Jim Moran (D-VA) in Kagro's piece.
We can only assume that our elected Dems must view this latest farce as easier than confronting Bush directly.
How immoral, given the number of Americans and Iraqis who will die in the coming months as we watch this policy charade play out to its obvious, deadly and disastrous end.
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And a charade it is...
Today brings news that the military isn't planning to wind down the surge in September (surprise!) or anytime soon. (Vietnam, anyone? Do not doubt that if we had a draft, we'd have half a million troops in that mess right now.)
Regardless, we already know that the very concept of the surge is a sham. According to the military's own experts, we would need 500,000 troops or more just to maintain order, nevermind quell a festering insurgency and civil war.
Pretending that the surge will have any positive effect whatsoever is particularly galling given the failure of Iraqi troop training, which, itself, was yet another major sham perpetrated on the American public.
Playing along at this point hoping for a better political opening in the Fall is immoral. I want every elected Dem who agrees to this charade to have to face the families of those who will be killed in what is certain to be a bloody, bloody summer.
Stop pretending. We all know the truth, just as many of us knew the truth before the IWR vote.
Don't make the same mistake here. Confront Bush. Back the congressional war supporters into a corner. The lives of tens of thousands of people are depending on it.
To do anything less is cowardly, immoral and criminal.
Update [2007-5-8 14:8:37 by Bob Johnson]:
I have now read a number of arguments that run along the lines of "we don't have the votes," etc.
My point is quite simple in this regard:
It is to the Dems electoral advantage in `08 to hang the phony surge around the necks of the Republicans.
That is what I am asking. No Democrat should go along with Trent Lott's phony, "We'll review in September" nonsense when we all know damn well there will be no improvement.
And, in fact, there will likely be at least 500 more U.S. deaths in Iraq between now and this phony "checkpoint."
So no Democrat should agree with Lott. Every single one of these 500 deaths should be hung around the necks of Republicans.
Public opinion polls already show that a vast majority of Americans think the surge is nothing more than a cynical, political ass-covering for a deeply-despised President and his lackeys.
Why would we want to back this travesty by pretending that there is even a chance that things will be better in September?