There has been a lot of disappointment, resentment, and perhaps even a bit of defection going on here lately over the latest development in the Democrats' and Bush's battle over Iraq. Yes, it's disappointing, but it should have been expected (for anyone paying attention). Really, the only question to ask is, now what? Giving up and washing one's hands in disgust is one option, but it doesn't change anything. In any case, I don't see Bush giving up, so why should you? Ah, but what should you do?
Let's start with the simple stuff. What are the goals--in order of importance:
- get U.S. troops out of Iraq
- maintain some level of stability in the region
- maintain some level of stability in Iraq
That's really it. Iraq will be screwed up, but it was screwed up prior to our arrival, and plenty of other places in the world are screwed up, with or without U.S. intervention. If your goal is to unscrew up the world, it's a good goal, but prepared for nearly constant disappointment.
How to achieve that goal is quite a bit more difficult, but if a bunch of pretty smart, knowledgeable people turned their minds to it, we could probably come up with something.
What are the obstacles? Well, even in a best case scenario where everyone agreed with the goals, there would still be obstacles of execution. But the obvious obstacle is that one of the two most powerful players in this scenario simply doesn't believe in goal #1 and is doing everything he can to thwart it, while the second player is too divided (and thus weak) to effectively challenge the first player. I am NOT speaking of the Democrats. I'm speaking of Congress as a whole unit, and only a reasonably united Congress can effectively overturn what the president wants. Under those circumstances, I'm not sure how anyone can EXPECT a positive outcome, regardless of who is signing what petition. And it's been this way from the beginning.
So, what can actually be done? Well, congress COULD overrule the president. But in practical terms, that would mean having to have a number of Republicans voting with the Democrats. For those of you with impeachment fantasies, successful impeachment would be several degrees of difficulty harder than say, getting enough Republicans on board to support stem cell research, which is easier than getting enough Republicans on board to cut off war funding. And we still can't manage the stem cell research--sheesh! Yes, we can complain about this that or the other wishy washy Democrat, but at the end of the day, even if all the Democrats stood shoulder to shoulder, it would change nothing without a number of Republicans standing with them. And that's hasn't changed yet.
So here are our choices.
- You can change Bush and Cheney's minds.
- You can change the minds of enough Republicans in Congress to come up with a veto-proof majority.
- You can elect a new president who agrees with and will work toward your goals.
Any of those three would work (some sooner, some later) IF they happened. What's the likelihood of those things happening, and what can you do about it? Perhaps those are the next questions to ask. I don't have answers. In fact the first two leave me feeling depressed and powerless. But as far as I can tell, those are our options and have always been our options.