Lindsay Graham: "I don't want the Congress to be the cavalry for Al Qaeda"

I caught this in Jules Crittendon's post crowing that his prediction that the NYT's and AP's reports about Bush getting ready to pull the plug on the war were largely fictitious wish-fulfillment fantasies.

Despite a steady procession of Republicans calling for a change in course, several lawmakers warned against a precipitous withdrawal.

“I believe that our military in cooperation with our Iraqi security forces are making progress in a number of areas,” said Sen. John McCain …

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who accompanied McCain to Iraq, also cited progress since Gen. David Petraeus took command several months ago and the additional troops began arriving.

The Iraqis are “rejecting al-Qaida at every turn. I don’t want the Congress to be the cavalry for al-Qaida,” he said.

Now here's the thing: Graham is manning up on this issue while Liddy Dole is calling for all troops to be out of Iraq by 2008. Dole, of course, was with us on immigration, and Graham was against us.

Although the amnesty bill was horrible, it can hardly be doubted that victory over Al Qaeda is more important than virtually any domestic bill.

These people -- Dole, Alexander, Snowe, Collins, even cry-like-a-bitch Voinovich -- have proven susceptible to constituent outrage friendly persuasion before.

Why not again?

Just because these people bowed to our demands the last time around is not enough to give them a free pass to undermine the war in Iraq. I think it's time for the blogosphere and talk radio full court press again.

If we don't, they'll take that as a sign that cutting and running and handing Iraq to Iran and Al Qaeda (but I repeat myself) is perfectly acceptable to conservatives.

These people supported the surge. In fact, many of them called for a surge before Bush announced a surge. And now that the surge is just beginning, and our troops are taking the inevitable additional casualties that come with taking a more aggressive stance against Al Qaeda, they're busy writing mash-notes to the terrorists in the form of withdrawal plans. This is unconscionable.

As a political matter, it's also ineffectual -- if the Democrats are right (or make themselves right by forcing a defeat), are these jackasses really thinking they can disown responsibility for the war by "distancing themselves from the surge" years after most Democrats declared Iraq a lost cause?

How many additional troop deaths do these people figure a few percentage points of approval are worth? 1% additional approval = 50 additional troop deaths caused by their encouraging Al Qaeda? 100? What's the exact number of additional dead soldiers and Marines they're willing to trade for a marginally better chance at the 2008 elections?

Allah doubts pressure on them can work because the polls are against the war. I'm not sure that's quite true -- the polls express profound disatisfaction with the war; I'm not sure the public is all jazzed about handing Al Qaeda its own state in Iraq, however.

But even if that's a case -- true, these jerkoffs can't win in 2008 without moderate support. You know who else they can't win without in 2008? Actual Republicans.

If staying home and letting the Democrats take their seats is what it takes to get them on board with the surge, I'm all in favor of that tradeoff. At least realizing they're all doomed anyway would leave them free to vote their consciences rather than vote their electoral expediency -- we have a chance with their consciences, at least.

They are undermining our troops in a war they authorized and surge they championed even as the surge is in its opening phase, and showing genuine success -- and they're encouraging Al Qaeda to kill even more troops.

This slow-bleed strategy is politically cute but militarily deadly -- if they want out of Iraq, they should call for the immediate withdrawal of all troops out of harm's way, not allow our troops to risk their hands, arms, legs, balls, and very lives for a war they've already given up on.

Either fight this fucking thing or call for the immediate withdrawal of all troops, right fucking now. Stop killing troops for what they take to be a lost cause just because they fear the political consequences of a stronger, more logical stance.

Stop playing games with our troops' lives.

Or the fuck with you all. We don't need goddamned Republicans selling our nation out to Al Qaeda to pander for votes; we have thousands of Democratic politicians eager to do us that dubious service.

posted by Ace at 05:10 PM

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