I went downstairs to get something to eat and flipped on the television to catch some news on CNN while I was eating. It was Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer and he was interviewing Mike Huckabee. Apparently if you're a Republican you can get an interview while polling in single digits almost everywhere, but I digress. He was asked about Iraq and his answer was similar to that from most Republicans in office and on the campaign trail. Follow me after the jump for more.
So Wolf asked Huckabee about his views on Iraq. Huckabee's brilliant response was that, while he favored limitations, he was against a timeline. He felt that this wasn't like a football game and that if we give a time for leaving it will embolden our enemies. Leaving aside the fact that most of the people in Iraq would much rather just be left to attack each other over control of the oil than deal with us, I have a separate question for Governor Huckabee and all of the other Republicans out there. If you don't want a timeline, then what limitations do you want? How will you determine when we're going to leave? What sports metaphor would you prefer to use while discussing our troops' lives?!?
Some suggestions:
Baseball: The Iraqi government gets 27 chances, or "outs", to fix all of the political problems in the country. Every mistake is an "out". After 27 "outs", we leave.
Soccer: Although we give a theoretical time to leave, that deadline inevitably gets pushed back, although in the war, this extra time will be doled out in Friedman Units and instead of "extra time" or "injury time" can be labeled "Petraeus time" or "Maliki time".
Cricket: There is absolutely no discernible explanation for what is going on. The Iraqi government mindlessly runs back and forth while people scream with no apparent purpose. The war goes on far too long with no explanation as to why it appears to last forever while our troops get exhausted, injured, or killed.
I hope beyond hope that there will some Republicans who think talking about our troops as if this were a game is ridiculous. I hope that they will realize that the only solutions are diplomatic and that our troops need to come home now. Sadly, I'm quite certain that won't be the case.