Tired and absurd rhetoric is nothing new in Washington. But the "Mission Accomplished" President, his allies in Congress,the punditry, and too many Democrats we know and love, are really up to their necks is senseless drivel.
The "accomplished" mission, now four years later, requires more troops, we are told. This is despite over a hundred thousand of our own troops, around a hundred thousand mercenaries (how is this legal?), and nearly an equal number of Iraqis. Somehow that is not enough, and will never be.
The blame, we hear, from partisans on both sides is an equal opportunity absurdity. They rather disingenuously claim it's the Iraqis' fault. "They must stand up before we stand down," goes the tired, worn cliche. Even Dick Durbin uttered this nonsense a couple of days ago. Perhaps he is trying to divert attention from his unspeakable betrayal (more on that in a moment). But that statement is more than a cliche, it's unbelievably callous, given the fact that Iraqis' country has been destroyed, and not entirely by them. Richard Clark estimated a couple of weeks ago, that 100,000 Iraqi citizens have died. There are 2 million external and 2 million internal refugees. And the sheer staggering scope of the rebuilding, hardship, and hunger, did not occur because Iraq ever was a threat to the US.
The loyal opposition, our own side of the aisle, routinely gets verbally assaulted as "appeasers," or even "traitors," all for a NON-BINDING time-line. And the Democrats let the other side fling this ka-ka with nary a bleat about the non-binding part. With a few exceptions, such as Sen. James Webb, the silence on the real issues is deafening. And so is the emptiness of the Democrats' standing up to the administration.
Meanwhile, the leader vetoes a NON-BINDING time- line. What part of NON-BINDING does he not understand? Is anyone not not appalled by the vacuous game-playing? There have been so many "grand strategies," so many exaggerations, that the emptiness of all the posturing and grandstanding stands in sharp contrast to the non-achievement from all sides. NON-BINDING. NON-BINDING. NON-BINDING. Let's not let any of them, even our own side, get away with the pretense that it really means anything at all.
That brings me to Dick Durbin, a Senator I used to admire. While the fault for the failures in Iraq, including waging war there in the first place, falls squarely on the shoulders of this administration, some Democrats deserve their own shame. Dick Durbin keeps repeating the outrageous claim that secrecy prevented him from telling the truth about the war before the war began. He knew the admin was lying. But he just "couldn't" tell. This is a blatant and shameless lie. He couldn't reveal details or facts of classified information. But he could have said the administration was misrepresenting the facts. And he owed it to us to do so. How long will we allow the absurd pretense to continue without telling the administration AND Democrats like Durbin that we don't want to hear it anymore? If they can't tell the truth, well, then they shouldn't even try to explain.
So once more for the road, shout it to the hills: Both sides, stop it! A NON-BINDING time-line warrants no veto or defense by the Dems. The pall over Washington is the shame spreading faster than a pol can utter the next cliche.