Last week they voted against a timetable to leave Iraq. This week, they are trying to craft one. When will the Senate Democrats make up their minds?

Trying to bridge party divisions on the eve of a Senate debate, leading Democrats called Monday for American troops to begin pulling out of Iraq this year. They avoided setting a firm timetable for withdrawal but argued that the Bush administration's open-ended commitment to the war would only prevent Iraqis from moving forward on their own.

Coming the week after partisan and often angry House debate over the war, the Senate proposal, a nonbinding resolution, was carefully worded to deflect any accusations that the Democrats were "cutting and running," as their position has been depicted by Republicans. The Democrats behind the measure did not even use the word "withdrawal," and talked about how to guarantee "success" for Iraq, not about any failures of the war.

"The administration's policy to date — that we'll be there for as long as Iraq needs us — will result in Iraq's depending upon us longer," said Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, who has been designated by the Democratic leadership to present the party's strategy on Iraq. "Three and a half years into the conflict, we should tell the Iraqis that the American security blanket is not permanent."

In other words, this is a resolution that looks good to the hard Left base of the Democrat Party, but does nothing so as not to alienate the rest of America.

I like Mitch McConnell's characterization of the proposal -- "cut & jog". And he is absolutely correct when he notes that the ehtire Democrat plan is poorly thought out.

"The last thing you want to do when you have the terrorists on the run is give them notice that you're going to leave," said Mr. McConnell, the Senate's No. 2 Republican.

When at war, you stay until you utterly defeat your enemy -- and you certainly don't give tell him that you are going to give up and walk away after a certain date. This isn't boxing with a set number of 3-minute rounds -- this is a fight for civilization against the enemies of all mankind.

Posted by: Greg at 11:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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