Crossposted at Dependent Arisings:
The Petraeus testimony, aside from giving President Bush the political cover he so desperately desired in regards to progress in Iraq and the “surge,” was a singular opportunity for Republicans in Congress to declare their independence from the Administration’s myopic and desultory policies. Everyone knows the obvious: Bush has just a little over a year left in office, and the Republican party (or what’s left of it) will no longer under the Administration’s guidance. It’s normal for Congress to assert itself vis-a-vis an outgoing President, especially when members of the President’s party need to distance themselves from unpopular policy.
But that’s not what happened. Republicans were offered the equivalent of a free meal from the Democrats–a bill sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb (a Democrat, yes, but also a former Secretary of the Navy under Reagan)–that would have required that active-duty troops spend as much time at home as in the field. According to the Guardian UK, the current system requires 15 months in combat forever 12 months spent at home.
Three months. It would have given troops an extra three months at home, and provided Republicans with political cover for a deeply unpopular war. They could have pointed to their compassion for the troops, without ever voting to actually end the war, which they are loathe to do.
The Webb bill was a gift; it should have easily passed, and it did, 56-44–but not by the 60-vote filibuster supermajority now demanded in the Senate.
Will the Republicans ever get another gift like this one? Yes and no. Democrats will most likely keep putting bills like Webb’s on the floor; they will then be subsequently defeated, albeit by a minority. Rinse and repeat until 2008. The Democrats, normally masters of accommodation, have finally picked up on something: all the polls about the war are drastically tilted their way. They don’t have compromise, because the longer American blood and treasure spills in Iraq, the more the knife twists in the Republicans’ chests. If they want to commit political Hari Kari, so be it. But their loss is not my definition of a victory.