Thinking about the Democratic “Leadership” in Congress, and their handling of the current Military Funding Bill, I am reminded of a "Far Side" cartoon of a “Boneless Chicken Ranch.” It depicted a bunch of "boneless" chickens laying and wobbling about in a barnyard. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi appear similarly spineless and absurd. They apparently have negotiated a complete abdication of their popular mandate to challenge the Bush Administration and, if possible, change the course of the Iraq Debacle. That public mandate is what brought these “Leaders” to power.
The excuse given for the “compromise” legislation is that President Bush threatens to veto any bill that included any type of accountability measure. In essence, he had declared that he would play a game of “Chicken” with Congress to see who would blink first. Were this just a game or a test of egos, it might be entertaining to some. But in this case, the Congress has caved in and effectively sentenced hundreds, if not thousands, more American troops to loss of life and limb in an aimless and incompetent fiasco. The situation in Iraq has sunk into civil war that no American intervention could prevent or stop. It is a situation for the Iraqi's to resolve for themselves, with the support of its regional neighbors. For American troops, it is a deadly proposition without any upside. Even the Iraqi Parliament and Prime Minister have said that they want the US troops out of Iraq.
Instead of executing the task they were sent to do, Congressional leaders have apparently agreed to give President Bush another blank check to throw billions more dollars into his deluded messianic mission to export Democracy and Freedom to the Iraqi people. How ironic that someone who has such little respect for Democracy should embark on such a Crusade. However, all fault does not lie with Bush. He has been delusional, intransigent and wrong, but he has been consistent. When his GOP colleagues met with him to tell him that the American people are insistent on a change of course in Iraq and that he has no credibility with the American people, they asked him what his “Plan B” regarding troop funding would be. He told them that he was unwilling to discuss a Plan B because it would mean a concession that Plan A had not worked. He had thus signaled that he would not change his mind or his course until forced to do so.
The Congress had a perfect chance to precipitate that change with the troop funding legislation. All they needed to do was to hold firm and pass another Bill with timetables and restrictions and send it to the Oval Office. If Bush chose to veto it, then he would have to accept the consequences for delaying funding to the military. Alternatively, he would have to discuss Plan B. The argument that failing to provide a blank check to the Administration was “not supporting the troops” is false and cynical. The Congressional attempts to provide limitations on the funding were the best hope of providing true support to the troops by mandating a rational strategy for getting them out of Iraq. Remember also that Congress previously has passed emergency stopgap legislation when government was on the verge of shutting down. If Bush vetoed a Bill with restrictions a second time, Congress could still pass a stopgap measure that assured the minimal military funding that is required until a comprehensive measure could be worked out. The currently proposed legislative cave in not only emboldens Bush to continue with his misguided “mission” in Iraq, but encourages him in his current efforts to precipitate yet another dangerous military confrontation with Iran.
This is no delicate moral dilemma; it is a case of common sense. Picture your child caught in the middle of a busy expressway with traffic speeding recklessly in both directions. Would you send the rest of your children out there to stand in the middle of the road to stop traffic? Or would you take immediate steps to get your child out of harm’s way? If the traffic is going to continue anyway and will involve collisions, removing your child from a dangerous situation at least removes the prospect that your child will be killed or injured in the collision. It is not rocket science; it is logic and common sense.
There must be some kind of force field around Washington, DC that dissolves the backbones and saps the consciousness from legislators. They start out from their home districts with a clear message that they are dispatched to deliver and job they are hired to perform. Once they reach the Capitol, however, they become mindless and spineless tools of lobbyists and political pollsters. They react out of fear, rather than act out of principle. This is a time when the need for true leadership is most evident. Someone is required who understands principle above political expediency. We need someone who is prepared to stand up and do what is right, rather than just what seems the easiest. Those candidates who aspire to occupy the White House should be measured by their response [or lack thereof] to the current funding situation. There is an old adage that is you will not stand up for something, you will fall for anything. That is not the kind of spineless individual that this country needs.
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