Arianna Huffington: Democrats Can't Wait Around for GOP Defectors to End the War

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from HuffPost:


Arianna Huffington

Democrats Can't Wait Around for GOP Defectors to End the War


This is the start of a critical stretch on Iraq, with the White House looking to run out the clock until Congress takes its summer vacation, and Senate Republicans struggling to split the Iraq war baby -- moving away from the president's stay-the-course stubbornness while not embracing troop withdrawal.

But no matter how many Republicans abandon the president on Iraq, it is Democrats who must seize this moment and take the lead in bringing our troops home. They simply cannot wait for a three-decades-later sequel to the famed march down Pennsylvania Avenue taken by the wise old men of the GOP to convince Richard Nixon that the end game had begun. Because as bad as Nixon was, George W. Bush is infinitely worse.

So while Republican defectors from Bush's war policy need to show they're serious with their votes, Democrats need to show they're serious by giving the Senate a bill to vote on that would actually end the war.

At the moment, the Democratic plan is to introduce a series of amendments to the defense authorization bill that will force Senate Republicans to either turn away from the White House or stay on board an $8 billion a month runaway train that has left the tracks and is heading off the edge of a cliff.

So far, these proposals look like a mixed bag -- and run the risk of taking the focus off where it belongs: pushing a concrete plan that includes binding start and end dates for withdrawal.

For instance, Hillary Clinton is planning to team with Robert Byrd to introduce a proposal that would revoke the authority to wage war on Iraq Congress gave the president in 2002. Call it Operation Do Over -- perfect for politicians looking to rewrite the past. "The American public and our troops in the field are entitled to a new debate about this war," said Clinton and Byrd in a letter to Democratic senators. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/democrats-cant-wait-arou_b_55510.html