Over the last few weeks, the media and a number of right wing politicians have tried to take the Democratic party to the proverbial woodshed over their support of a plan for withdrawing US troops out of Iraq.
Democrats were called all sorts of names and characterized as white flag waving un-patriotic defeatists who didn’t have the stomach for victory, usually as irony would have it, by people who never served in the military to begin with or avoided war in Vietnam through repeat deferments altogether.
News over the weekend though makes it appear that Democrats are on the right side of the pullout debate though. The New York Times has an article about how the top US commander in Iraq wants exactly the kind of phased pullout that Democrats have been calling for:
But The New York Times, quoting unnamed U.S. officials, reported Sunday that Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, plans to send home about 7,000 of the 127,000 American troops by September without replacing them. More than 20,000 more would leave by the end of 2007, the Times reported.
On top of that, the Iraqi government also seems to agree with Democrats that it’s time for the US military to start leaving Iraq as well. So not only does the Democratic plan to pull out of Iraq match up with what the military commanders on the ground think, but also that of the nation that we’re occupying.
The real question now is why won’t Republicans get on board? “Stay the course” never was a real plan, and it’s bordering on lunacy for the President and GOP controlled Congress to keep repeating it now that there is a plan from the Democrats which has backing from the military and the Iraqi government.
I live in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Milwaukee, WI with my wife Jen, our daughter Emerson, and son Carter.
This is why I suggest a draft, specifically targeted against the children of Congress and the President, and make sure that they’re the first ones in.
I seriously think that having to risk the lives of their own kids would permanently prevent the leaders of this country from engaging in pointless wars.