"Wait till September" From the Democratic Party...

[liberal N proud]

President Bush and the Republicans in Congress have been telling us to wait for the so-called "Petraeus Report" for months before we change the course in Iraq. Now with relentless bloodshed and no political solution in sight, President Bush wants more time for his failed war.
Tell Congress that their time is up -- find a new course for Iraq:
http://www.democrats.org/TimeIsUp
All summer, Republicans have used the so-called "Petraeus Report" to delay dealing with growing anti-war sentiment.
In June, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said:
"I think everybody anticipates that there's going to be a new strategy in the fall. I don't think we'll have the same level of troops, in all likelihood, that we have now. The Iraqis will have to step up, not only on the political side, but on the military side, to a greater extent. We're not there forever. I think they understand that, and the time to properly evaluate that, it strikes me, is in September."
And in July, President Bush said,
"I welcome a good, honest debate about the consequences of failure, the consequences of success in this war. But I believe that it's in this nation's interests to give the commander a chance to fully implement his operations. I believe Congress ought to wait for Gen. Petraeus to come back and give his assessment of the strategy that he's putting in place before they make any decisions."
This week, General Petraeus testified before Congress, asking for more time. He wants to wait until March to make recommendations about bringing our troops home.
Tell them that the time to make those decisions is right now -- just as they've been saying all summer.
http://www.democrats.org/TimeIsUp
According to the Washington Post, many experts have questioned data behind the general's optimistic assessment of the war, accusing the Pentagon of "cherry-picking positive indicators." Even in December 2006, the Iraq Study Group reported "significant under-reporting of violence."
In fact, this has been the bloodiest summer for American soldiers since the war began.
And when it comes to the Iraqi government, there's even less progress. The surge was supposed to help give breathing room in the political process, but the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that two and a half years after the first election, the Iraqi government has met just three of the 18 benchmarks set by Congress.
Kenneth Katzman, author of a report for the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, put it this way:
"My assessment is that because of the number and breadth of parties boycotting the cabinet, the Iraqi government is in essential collapse. That argues against any real prospects for political reconciliation."
Add your name to the list of people telling Congress that this isn't a war that's going to be won with military might, now or six months from now. It's time to change the course and redeploy our troops from Iraq:
http://www.democrats.org/TimeIsUp
President Bush cherry-picked intelligence to make his initial case for war over four years ago. Since then he has stifled dissent and distorted the truth to sell his failing strategy to the rest of us.
The Republicans accuse Democrats of setting arbitrary dates for withdrawal -- but it's the Republicans who set arbitrary dates for delay.
Sincerely,
Tom McMahon
Executive Director


http://www.democrats.org/TimeIsUp

[sampsonblk]

1. We need a surge of protests

[jmp]

2. The buck stops at the Democratic majority.

They need to take the necessary action to stop this war like they promised to, rather than trying to pass the buck to the minority. If I thought the Reps would end this war, I would've voted for them.

[AtomicKitten]

3. Well, it's September so GAME OVER.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. "Fiasco" by Thomas Ricks should be required reading material for all members of Congress

I'm about halfway through Thomas Ricks' "Fiasco" about the Iraq war/occupation and, based on the accounts provided in the book so far, it is utterly amazing (and appalling) that the Bush (mis-)administration, let alone General Patreaus (whose name has been dropped several times throughout the book so far) has ANY credibility left at this point or deserves any more time to correct mistakes that were made right from the beginning of the occupation 4+ years ago, not to mention the fact that the (mis-)administration did not prepare any of us (although it was certainly obvious to members of the "reality-based community" such as Colin Powell) for an occupation that Bush has himself acknowledged might last as long as our presence in South Korea has, something that might've slowed if not stopped the rush to war in Iraq back in 2003. Of course, Bush et. al can't tell any of us the truth and our post-invasion policies (i.e. "De-Baathification, something that Patreaus reportedly was shocked at back then) appear to have essentially guaranteed that we would not be able to leave early and/or be able to redeploy most of our troops. Bush, et. al might've been able to easily topple Saddam and his loathsome regime (was there any doubt that we could?) but they clearly did not have a plan for the occupation and carelessly neglected Iraq and committed so many blunders during the initial stages of the occupation that there does not appear to be any meaningful way for us to be able to redress them now nor in the course of another six months from now. I believe that we owe it to the Iraqis to continue to help support them but I believe that we need to re-deploy all or most of our troops out of Iraq NOW, not just return us to pre-"surge" troop levels in nearly a year from now. "Blind Into Baghdad" by James Fallows is another equally excellent compendium of what happened before and after the invasion of Iraq.