The GOP War and the GOP Blame Game

12/03/2005

Paul Munnis

Even as the Bush strategy for Iraq is found wanting and is causing Americans to realize that the GOP does not know what it is doing in Iraq, their spin machine has gone into overdrive. They are attacking Democrats for not having a plan for Iraq.

This is an old tactic—attack the strength of the opposition.

Here is the short version of the facts of life concerning a Democratic plan for Iraq.

1. The Iraq War is a purely GOP creation. They made a clear choice to invade Iraq.

2. The GOP lied, manipulated, and disregarded the rest of the world when they were advised against an invasion and told that the basis for war was suspect. The UN told the U.S. that its intelligence was wrong and that no WMD existed in Iraq. The UN sent in teams to verify their claims and America inspectors were with the teams, people like Scott Ritter. The U.S. disregarded that intelligence and called it lies.

3. The GOP was wrong concerning the resistance that they would experience from the occupation of Iraq.

4. American forces were too light to perform the full occupation job. An attempt to create a massive coalition failed.

5. The GOP miscalculated the fiscal costs of the war and thought it could be paid for with Iraqi oil money. Wrong.

6. In an attempt to fix the political structure of Iraq the GOP has permitted a non-democratic form of government in the form of an Iraqi Constitution that advocates a Church run-state to become legitimate. This has lead to civil war in Iraq.

7. The U.S. has no business taking sides in an Iraqi Civil War and we need to get out of Iraq. Time is not on our side and thus time is of the essence.

8. American firepower will not resolve a Civil War in Iraq. It appears to be making it worse.

9. Insurgency is Iraq is the consequences of GOP actions and mismanagement decisions. One example is torture and abuse of POW’s. That spreads and creates about 10 insurgents for every person tortured and abused. The GOP is growing its own enemies in Iraq and indeed across the mid-east. They are not winning the minds and the hearts of the mid-easterner because they can see the failures of the U.S. occupation of Iraq and they do not want that for themselves. A recent poll says the mid-easterner considers Iraqi’s to be worse off than they were under Saddam.

10. These and other aspects of the War in Iraq were communicated by Democrats and many moderate Republicans to the GOP and they were called names ranging from “traitor” to “un-American” and “Cowards,” as a result and thus the GOP ignored the inputs and have lost their right to ask for assistance in that climate of partisanship.

11. Democrats are unable to bring legislation to the floor of the Congress and cannot sponsor a plan for Iraq no matter how much they try to do so.

12. Therefore Getting out of Iraq is a purely GOP problem. They got us into Iraq and now they need to get us out of Iraq.

13. The Democratic Party can be as free thinking as they want to be on this subject. They are in agreement about a need for a plan to exit Iraq; they are in agreement that the costs of the war are unacceptable; they agree the deficit created by war is too much; they agree that the GOP has mismanaged this war; They agree they have no power to control the events concerning the war. Indeed Democrats mirror America and they have no need to force upon their membership a singular party position that must be followed. But the GOP does need that unity and is having its problems establishing it and keeping it.

14. The GOP controls the White House and the Congress. The former funds the war and the latter sanctions it.

15. The ball is in their court.

16. “Staying the Course,” is a jingoistic phrase and is not a plan.

17. America is bleeding troops and money while the GOP flip-flops around concerning this war. The result even hobbles the military.

18. The pressure on the GOP from their poor management of the Iraqi War is threatening their future in a major way.

Those eighteen points are the facts of life and the spin machine of the GOP can plant all of the stories that they want to about Democrats and Iraq; but, it is a waste of their time and energy. The GOP needs to win the war that they took on and that they initiated and they lack a cogent plan to do so. The GOP’s energy would be better spent crafting a plan and seeking consensus for it rather than antagonizing voters whom they will face in a few months at the voting booths across America. In fact, the existence of a plan and a debate concerning it could form a reasonable basis for the 2006 election. Yet they have not produced a cogent plan even for that.

If the Bush Administration wants Democratic participation in war planning it is easy enough to get it. Just ask for it. The leaders of the Democratic Party could not avoid the call to participation it would be seen in a bad light to do so. Mr. Bush has not and likely will not make such a call because it involves admitting his mistakes.

This is a GOP lead war. Mr. Bush is a war-time president. The strategy of attacking Democrats is useless and another failed GOP plan. There is no substitute for a quality plan for Iraq and one cannot muddle through without one. The Bush Administration must create one. Poor substitutes and emotional speeches will not suffice.

The way to begin is to determine the legacy that America wants to leave in Iraq and then work with the Iraqi’s to create that legacy. Once the legacy sub-systems are developed, we should get out of Iraq. The legacy of a democratic form of government in Iraq seems to have failed at the Constitutional level. The GOP has squandered the opportunity for cogent Iraqi War planning, management and leadership. Don’t blame the Democrats for that.