As Snow Settles Over Washington

03/14/2006

Paul Munnis

A hush has fallen over Washington as echoes of GOP jibes concerning “Cutting and Running” from Iraq begin to fade away and settle to the ground just as falling snowflakes do. In their place comes quiet recognition of Iraq Civil War, a mounting toll of bodies, repudiation of the Bush Administration management strategy for the Iraqi war, failure at forming a non-sectarian Iraqi government, and today’s GOP announcement that Washington has set a withdrawal timetable for U.S. troops to quit Iraq. That announcement comes after Mr. Bush has vowed he would never do it, that it brings aid and comfort to the enemy, etc., etc. The snow of the Bush spin-machine is quietly falling to the ground and the silence from America is nearly deafening as we think about how best to dig out of the drifts.

What a mess. This is not a joyful day for Americans regardless of what Party they belong to. Billions of dollars of American money has been spent on creating colossal failure even as a huge deficit is foisted off on American generations as yet unborn. While big mouthed GOP spin-machine operatives will seek to blame Democrats most Americans recognize the source as being that of the same empty drum of national division that we have heard since the 2000 campaign with the noise coming from the GOP.

How do you suppose it feels to be an Iraqi citizen today? There is no hope for peace for years yet to come. Iraqi’s know there are not enough Americans to enforce the peace and they know the Iraqi Army and police will splinter into religious camps, quit their posts, and join the various religious militias in a Civil War. The elected leaders of the Iraqi government have brought the whole house of cards to the ground with their failure to face the reality of the need for a unity government. The religious leaders of Iraq have now lost control of their followers. How would you like to be bringing a child into that war torn nation? How will they feed themselves as American forces hunker down and prepare to withdraw? Mr. Bush is mute on these points. Once again, he has no plan but he will cobble together something pretty soon.

America is required, under International Law and as the occupying force of a nation, to keep the peace, to develop an Iraqi economy, to feed and provide medical care for the populace, and to transition Iraq over to a peaceful government. The Bush Administration has failed on every count. So has the U.S. military which was too sparse to do the job in Iraq, something Democrats made clear right after the invasion of Iraq and which Mr. Bush has been in denial of in spite of the obvious evidence and the comments of his Generals and even of his own Party members.

In business one of the paths to prosperity is to listen to your critics and act upon their complaints. The Bush Administration has been too arrogant by far to do that and the result is a series of go-it-alone moves that has brought disaster to governance for the GOP and to America.

When Rep. Jack Murtha laid it on the line concerning Iraq, the GOP, instead of carefully evaluating the situation, went into a defensive huddle and missed the opportunity to salvage the war effort. The result is the present disaster that we now see.

Unable to manage the occupation of Iraq, America is left with what is increasingly looking like just one option—to cut and to run from Iraq. The GOP has thus created a self-fulfilling prophecy by failing to discuss the alternatives and to just assume that Mr. Bush and Mr. Rumsfeld had an alternative. The GOP’s best option was to enter into a serious national dialog about what to do about the war instead of stifling the national discussion with “cut and run” nonsense. Readers now see the result for themselves. It’s right up there with the Swift-boating of genuine American heroes in terms of the magnitude of pure mean behavior.

Russ Feingold wants to censure Mr. Bush while others like Rep. Conyers, wants to impeach him. That is over the NSA spying issue. Yet after looking at the recent crop of failures that the GOP ranked in their recent convention straw poll, we think they have no replacement worth putting forward who can govern. For example: in the 2004 election the GOP accused Democrats of “waffling,” on the issues. Yet their preferred candidate, Sen. John McCain, is the all-time head of the class of “waffle-making.” The truth is that as the GOP lost their governance capability then they also lost their soul. One good example of waffling was John McCain caving-in to Mr. Bush on the torture and abuse language of the Defense Authorization Bill. Their ability to lead America is now nil. They are souless politicians. Can we trust them to lead America in the Iraqi War effort any longer? I don’t think so.

At least Democrats have acted as the loyal opposition and thus we have a legit reason to mourn the loss of the Iraqi War and to be critical of the management of it. The GOP lost that legitimacy when the embraced Mr. Bush kock-stock-and barrel.

If we can duct-tape the mouths of the GOP spin-machine for awhile we might be able to craft an American solution for this mess. Enjoy the silence from the GOP while it lasts. The snow has ended in Washington and noisy snow plows will soon come by churning up the snow drifts. In the meantime we need to talk as a people but we are hobbled by the GOP mean-machine.

In the meantime, Americans need to realize that as our military presence is gradually drawn down in Iraq those left behind are in increasing danger. There comes a point where a force too small will perish because they lack the power to adequately defend themselves. When the last group leaves Iraq, it will thus be a large sized group force and they will abandon everything including equipment, money, people, installations, oil wells, everything, in order to get out of town in one piece. There is a slim possibility they can withdraw first to Afghanistan or a neighboring Arab nation but that is yet to be determined. Again, there is no plan, but one will be cobbled together real soon.

As they leave Iraq, it will look to outsiders as if our forces are “cutting and running.” Likely the GOP mean-mouths will label it that way. They are not cutting and running they are doing what the military calls “an orderly withdrawal.” The last group, by definition of ‘group defense,’ has to be a pretty large withdrawal force. For God sakes pray for our troops and don’t mock or abuse their withdrawal efforts. They too are GOP victims and they are our children and fellow citizens of America.

When the troops get home you can expect a Defense Approprations Bill for hundreds of Billions of dollars to replace the lost equipment. Our NG and Reserves will be decimated and will have little but run-down junk to use. These are the people who are responsible for Homeland Defense and Security and keeping order in a time of terrorist attack and national emergency.