Yes, I'm Pissed

I’m just going to link to Meteor Blades at the Daily Kos here since this person captures a lot of what I feel at this moment about the strong possibility of yet another Dem cave-in on Iraq (I had a feeling this might happen – again, assuming it does, though that appears to be likely – after the vote on McCain-Feingold last week that must have left the Repugs roaring with hilarity…and yes, I actually mean to imply that some truly wretched life forms out there that would find humor in scoring political points at the expense of our dead and maimed service people).

Here is what the Democrats should have done when passing the Iraq Supplemental; they should have made sure that the families and friends of our military who have suffered the most out of all of this were in attendance while the votes took place so all of those voting against the legislation would have had to do so in the presence of people representing our military. When the congressional leadership (using the term loosely at this moment) met the media over the passage of the bills, they should have made sure the aforementioned families and friends were “front and center” on it (having Patrick Murphy lead the way in the House is wise, but somehow I think the Repugs would have had a lot harder time trying to malign a group of people as opposed to one person – that’s one of the reasons why it’s so easy for them to dump on Michael Berg). From what I saw, I honestly don’t remember that happening.

And do I really need to point out what the Repugs would have done had the shoe been on the other foot? Is it really necessary to remind the Democrats (who have now etched in stone the “divided Democrats” narrative – I might as well completely give up on fighting that one) that, if Dole and Gingrich were still around (harping from yesterday on this, I know), they would have sent the same bill to Dubya over and over and over and yelled loud and long about how most of the country wants this misery to end and Bush is just ignoring that?

Also (though this pales in comparison to the human cost), the political implications here are significant, because the Dems now own this war too. There’s no sense in any of the congressional candidates for president trying to run against it, because their party in power will have failed to do anything about it (I guess this enhances the candidacy of John Edwards somewhat since he has had nothing to do with this, but I can assure you that I take no pleasure from that).

If, God willing, a Dem wins the White House next year (and I say that only because of the consequences of a Repug victory), this person will bear the brunt of trying to find some resolution to this now, and the fallout from that will land squarely on this person’s shoulders (and the war may end up dominating this person’s presidency as well as that of the pretender currently taking up space at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue). And assuming there are Democratic gains congressionally next year (I don’t mean to take that for granted, though, especially after this), the war will take up the majority of the time of the next congress also.

These are the political prices that will be paid as a result of giving Dubya what he wants here and now (and again, I readily admit that they pale in comparison to the human cost).

Well, since it appears that the Dems need another lesson in what this war is all about (with most of the rest of the country having long since given up any hope of a good outcome), I think it is appropriate for me to link to this song by John Flynn one more time.



Update: Meteor Blades has more on what we can do about this (kudos to Patrick Murphy for supporting the McGovern bill, and once again, Tim Holden and Allyson Schwartz have some explaining to do).