A Christmas Present for America and the World

12/08/2005

Paul Munnis

Christmas has come early for Rep. Jack Murtha this year. His courageous call for an end to the Iraq War has put the Bush Administration on the defensive and as a result, Donald Rumsfeld announced today that 20,000 American troops will be coming home for Christmas. John Kerry smiled at the news and he too rejoiced since he had organized forces to pressure the Bush Administration to do a stand-down of 20,000 troops by Christmas. A voter mandate to bring home 20,000 troops and signed by half American voters is not easily ignored in Washington.  These two former warriors have won a major battle with the Administration. We congratulate them both. We thank those voters of both parties who added their signatures to the drive to bring home our troops.

The news gets better as Rumsfeld also announced an intent to being home another 35,000 troops next year and John Kerry is pushing him hard to make it 100,000 with a small force left of 30-40,000 troops to train and support the Iraqi armed forces. As we argue and debate this the number to bring home will go up from the intended 35,000 and we will begin further disengagement from Iraq.

All of this as the GOP media talking heads, people like Wolf Blitzer, maintain that Democrats are split over their support for the Iraq war. To Democrats that is not news. If we ever get to a point where we totally close ranks it will be very surprising since Democrats are pretty darn free to represent their districts, express their own opinions, follow their own conscience, and the Democratic Party comes long after all of that is dealt with.

As we said in our editorial yesterday, consensus for change is building rapidly and the neo-cons are now fading away and scurrying for political cover. The change is of course away from neo-con influence and back towards the center.

What about our MN National Guard people who have been training for deployment to Iraq? As far as we can see there is a change of mission and a change in the mix of skills needed in Iraq. Whole military training commands are going over to train Iraqi troops and the U.S. military will be turning over more and more responsibility to the Iraqi Army. American troops will be used but not so much in major American sweeps as we saw in the past. John Kerry made his point: Americans should not be doing the work that Iraqi’s can do for themselves such as conducting house to house searches for insurgents and arms caches. So our NG people will be home for Christmas and they may get to stay home depending upon the new manning documents for Iraq. The U.S. Air Force will now assume a major role of providing air support for Iraqi foces.

This will also force the disengagement of the U.S. from the Iraqi Civil War. Only Iraqi’s can resolve that issue.

We hope that one of the first jobs that we turn over to the Iraqi’s is the custody of Iraqi prisoners. The sooner that we can get out of running those camps the better for America and for our troops. We must continue to support John McCain and his determination to force America to follow the Geneva conventions in the handling of prisoners.

As this Christmas approaches then we Democrats can afford to take a deep breath even as the GOP goes off to plot their comeback efforts. At both the Federal and State level, the neo-cons are back in check and are being made to feel the majority wants and opinions on a myriad of subjects that they disagree with the rest of America about. The 2006 election is going to bring more accountability to GOP incumbents. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have a lot to be happy about after conducting a titanic struggle in this Congress. Our hats are off to them as well as people like Chuck Schumer and Ted Kennedy.

Karl Rove seems to have become a perfect gentleman since Mr. Fitzgerald had a chat with him late last month. More GOP scandals continue to happen even as the head of the NH GOP goes on trial for conspiracy to destroy the voting rights of Democrats in that State. Ohio is now being scrutinized closely too and there could be news coming from that State before long. Tom DeLay seems to be neutralized as he struggles to gain a semblance of control. Scooter Libby is praying for a presidential pardon. Many are still worried that Mr. Fitzgerald is still active and is still prosecuting and developing new evidence.

Soon we will have the Iraqi elections over with, there will be a legitimate Iraqi government and Mr. Bush can celebrate even as he plans to withdraw troops from Iraq.

Many mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers, will rejoice this Christmas and thank God for the likes of Jack Murtha and John Kerry. Those soldiers keep on fighting for what they believe in and as a result sons and daughters are coming home from danger and death. Many a General is also going to be relieved that this war is winding down. Command responsibility weighs heavily upon them. We expect announcements soon on the War in Afghanistan too.

This 109th Congress will soon end, the new Congress will form, and the Bush Administration will become a lame-duck presidency. In less than a month we will begin the new year of 2006 and the Congressional and State campaign races will shift into an accelerated mode as Democrats seek to retake seats given over to the GOP in years past. Once we can do that then we can look to getting American finances and jobs back under control.

As this holiday season approaches the American people are turning away from war, turning towards peace, and can cautiously celebrate disengagement in Iraq. The winners are the Iraqi people who can start building a nation, for better or for worse as they so choose and indeed the people of the mid-east are celebrating too as Sharon presses for peace with Palestine.

History always remembers the peace makers and Rep. Murtha, John Kerry, and many men like John McCain and Max Cleland will be remembered for their contributions to peace.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.