Lord knows many here were skeptical about what kind of Democrat Bob Casey Jr. would be if elected to the U.S. Senate, but with a #5 ranking on Progressive Punch and in a ninth-place tie for most loyally Democratic voting record overall, perhaps his comments on Iraq today after a visit there can finally come as no surprise:
Back from a two-day trip to Iraq, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr. remains convinced the United States needs to change it's strategy.
"Nothing I saw or heard about on the trip ... changed my basic opinion on where we are in Iraq or the surge," said Casey, who reiterated his support for a phased withdrawal or redeployment of U.S. forces.
The main problems continue to be the lack of progress training Iraqi forces and the glacial pace of change in the Iraqi government.
"To say it's not stable is an understatement," he said of the government. "I didn't have any sense of tremendous progress."
Casey, speaking to reporters in Philadelphia, also offered a bleak assessment about the terrorist threat facing the United States and he predicted the fight will last decades.
"We're going to be dealing with terrorists forever, for decades," he said as he decried "crass" political rhetoric often used to shape debates over the Iraq war as something that can be won or lost.
"They speak of this conflict in win-lose language ... I think that language is inaccurate and inappropriate," said Casey."I think it's irresponsible. ... a deliberate attempt to mislead people about what this conflict is about."
Saddest of all was the observation of his that only about 9,000 Iraqi troops are capable of standing on their own without U.S. support -- according to the article, Casey observed that Iraqi leaders pleaded for more time and showed no signs of urgency, suggesting to him there was an 'Iraqi clock' and an 'American clock' and that Americans needed to adjust to the Iraqi pace of transition.
We're on an American clock, and it's time to start coming home.