McJoan diaried about this last week, and now it's coming to fruition.
I'm nostalgic for those days of the Baker-Hamilton commission, when Dean Broder assured us that the Wise Men of Washington, acting in a bipartisan fashion, would resolve the problems of the Iraq War. The commission's recommendation was for a phased pull-out.
Bush has ignored this, and decided instead to follow the McCain play, sending 20,000+ troops in an escalation/"surge".
And here's the latest
"President George Bush has asked Congress for an extra 8,000 troops for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, on top of the 21,500 reinforcements announced two months ago."
At this point, it becomes a serious question of "Where does this end?" I thought the "surge" idea was supposed to be the "one last try", the "Hail Mary" so to speak.
Things to keep in mind here:
- Bush won't leave Iraq on his own.
- Bush will keep sending as many troops as he possibly can, including sending wounded back into combat, as diaried by paddykraska.
- Congress won't even act on Rep. Murtha's relatively sensible plan to require the Bush administration to respect the leave requirements that soldiers are entitled to, and to ensure that troops sent over are properly equipped.
Historically, it has been difficult for Congress to rein in a President abusing his control of the military. The misadventures in Vietnam were only finally stopped when Congress passed the War Powers Act in 1973, over a veto by President Nixon.
In the late '60s and early '70s, though, Congress was actively trying to provide oversight to an administration that was purusing a war far beyond the scope envisioned by the original Gulf of Tonkin resolution. In that respect, today's situation is similar. This Presidency is politically invested in the war, and will not back down at all. Moreover, this administration has shown itself to be breathtakingly incompetent in the pursuit of war objectives.
Congress has two choices: oppose the President's repeated requests for more, more, more, more and risk being blasted on FoxNews and the other jingoistic news outlets, or actually represent the people, and require the President to define his goals, equip and train the troops properly, respect the rights of the troops and the wounded for decent leave provisions and medical care and, ultimately, tell the American people what the actual goal is. The goal appears to be to stay in Iraq forever. Perhaps that needs to be clarified.
And I'm not even going to touch the topic of Iran today.