Senate Gridlock Over Iraq War

04/22/2007

Paul Munnis


If the war in Iraq cannot be won militarily and the Bush Administration has no diplomatic initiatives going to end it, then it seems fair to say that “the war in Iraq is lost.” That’s what Harry Reid said and I agree with him. Even General Petraeus is admitting that it’s pretty tough to turn things around although he is trying his very best to do so.

General Petraeus will be coming to Capitol Hill to testify soon and there are many questions to be asked and answered. But the biggest wild-card of all is al Sadr. What is he up to? If he decides to run a guerilla war then that added to the insurgency plus a Civil War is just two wars too many for the U.S. to be engaged in over Iraq. In that case the rest of the GOP Senators standing for election may cross-over and join Democrats and get this unpleasant task over with.

In the meantime Congress is caught between a rock and a hard place. They want to end the war in Iraq and have to do so by denying funds to our troops. This is not the sort of a move that gets votes for Democrats yet if the GOP people standing for election don’t vote against the war then it will be a campaign issue for them in 2008.

Democrats would like to get it on and get the deed done and over with but they don’t have the Senate votes to over-ride a veto. It’s close but not quite there as yet.

So the carnage continues in Iraq. Last week was a wicked week of bloodshed and we have to live with it knowing that the GOP has created Senate gridlock over the issue. The blood of dead and dying Iraqi’s is on the hands of these Senate holdouts.