Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Joe Biden (D-DE) said yesterday that he believes top officials in the Bush administration — “maybe even including the vice president” — have “privately concluded they have lost Iraq and are simply trying to postpone disaster so the next president will ‘be the guy landing helicopters inside the Green Zone, taking people off the roof,’ in a chaotic withdrawal reminiscent of Vietnam.”
"I have reached the tentative conclusion that a significant portion of this administration, maybe even including the vice president, believes Iraq is lost," Biden said. "They have no answer to deal with how badly they have screwed it up. I am not being facetious now. Therefore, the best thing to do is keep it from totally collapsing on your watch and hand it off to the next guy -- literally, not figuratively."
Now, I happen to believe that Biden is absolutely correct - not only have we completely lost in Iraq, but most of the Bush Administration already knows that we've lost - no matter how much Bush and his most wingnut of supportors such as Bill Kristol continue their insane talk of "Victory".
Bush, on other hand, understands that the only acceptable exit strategy is victory. To that end, Bush should do more. He should send substantially more troops and insist on a change of strategy to allow a real counterinsurgency and prevent civil war.
But the cold hard truth is that this entire escapade has been a total failure from top to bottom. They couldn't handle post Saddam Iraq, they couldn't stop the looting, get the lights back-on, get the fresh water flowing - and couldn't resist humiliating the Iraq with Abu Ghraib - until finally they permently lost not only the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people - they lost their trust as well.
Hence we have all this blather about a "surge" (of 30,000 troops) or maybe it's a "bump" (of only 15,000) -- all the while most of us are fully aware that none of these suggestions are doing anything more than buying time for the Bush Administration to run out the clock.
Even some of our newly empowered Democrats in Congress aren't quite getting it yet.
Last night on ABC News, newly elected Rep. Nancy Boyda (D-KS) said she would support funding for 20,000-40,000 more troops in Iraq because President Bush “is the commander in chief. …We don’t get that choice. Congress doesn’t make that decision.
Oh, but it does...
Although the new Congress should not refuse to provide the funds that the troops already in Iraq and Afghanistan need, it can place an amendment on the supplemental funding bill that states that if the administration wants to increase the number of troops in Iraq above 150,000, it must provide a plan for their purpose and require an up or down vote on exceeding that number.
They can also push for hearings on the supplemental funding requiring that the Administration precisely lay-out it's plan for how that spending is to be used -- a measure which falls far short of completely pulling out the plug on our troops, but still holds Bush's feet to the fire not to use them as human shields to bolster his shredded legacy.
Although this "Surge and Accelerate" Strategery of the President is as transparent as a sun dress in late afternoon sunlight - even Biden himself is sounding tentative.
"There is nothing a United States Senate can do to stop a president from conducting his war," Biden said. "The only thing that is going to change the president's mind, if he continues on a course that is counterproductive, is having his party walk away from his position."
Biden said that Vice President Cheney and former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld "are really smart guys who made a very, very, very, very bad bet, and it blew up in their faces. Now, what do they do with it? I think they have concluded they can't fix it, so how do you keep it stitched together without it completely unraveling?"
With Duct Tape and Glue made from the body parts of American Soldiers? I think not.
The fact is they're aint gonna be a "Surge" - not if John Murtha can help it.
When we asked about the likelihood of the president sending additional troops to Iraq, Murtha was adamant. "The only way you can have a troop surge," he told us, "is to extend the tours of people whose tours have already been extended, or to send back people who have just gotten back home." He explained at length how our military forces are already stretched to the breaking point, with our strategic reserve so depleted we are unprepared to face any additional threats to the country. So does that mean there will be no surge? Murtha offered us a "with Bush anything is possible" look, then said: "Money is the only way we can stop it for sure."
One thing Congress can due is make sure that Bush is the one who has to "face the choppers" - not the next President.
(Unless of course, Bush has already been forced to abdicate due to War Crimes Charges)
Vyan
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