Democrats Must Stop Living In Past: What We Need Now Is The Guts To Get Us Out of Iraq

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/12/2483/

Democrats Must Stop Living In Past: What We Need Now Is The Guts To Get Us Out of Iraq
by Jennifer Hunter

“The troops will march in; the bands will play; the crowds will cheer; and in four days everyone will have forgotten. Then we will be told to send in more troops. It’s like taking a drink. The effect wears off, and you have to take another.”

That was historian Arthur Schlesinger reflecting his concern about sending more troops into Vietnam, but he could just as well have been talking about Iraq.

Five years ago, the statue of Saddam was pulled down, the people celebrated the end of tyranny, more troops were sent, and the killing became relentless. We had to take drink after drink, as Schlesinger said, and send unit after unit to fight in a country that we assumed would welcome our invasion and embrace a democratic form of government.

Five years and our soldiers are still getting killed relentlessly, daily, and there is no democracy; there are only IEDs and anarchy. So far, 3,600 American soldiers have died, and more than 67,000 Iraqi civilians have lost their lives. And we are beside ourselves with worry and grief.

snip//

But Democrats need to stop arguing among themselves about who voted to authorize the war, who apologized about his vote and who opposed it from the start. Obama makes much of his anti-war stance before he was elected to the Senate, but who knows what pressures would have been imposed on him if he had been in the Senate at the time the vote was taken? Hillary Clinton did vote to go into Iraq, but she makes no bones now about the need for withdrawal. Whether or not she apologized for her vote is moot. As Lyndon Johnson once said, “We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it.” We need to figure how to go forward and disengage.

Democrats must support Levin’s proposal; they need to show backbone and consider cutting off some of the funding — just leaving enough to maintain security troops in Iraq — if it’s the only way to counteract the ostrich-like tendencies of Bush. Most importantly, they need to stop worrying about voter backlash. No one wants to vote for a bunch of wimps. Just ask Jimmy Carter.

[Warpy]

1. I'm afraid it's going to be up to us now

because either they're too comfortable or too scared of whatever blackmail those warrantless wiretaps turned up to be much use to us.

We the people have got to start scaring the hell out of those who would be our leaders. We the people are the leaders. They work at our pleasure.

We need to let them know our pleasure is at an end.

[babylonsister]

2. It does make me wonder what they're afraid of also. If there was

another excuse, you'd think they'd share it with us.

[leftchick]

3. maintaining security troops in Iraq is bullshit

It is another way of saying "securing the oil". Even the Democrats are for that. We need to bring every one home and fuck the bases! :grr:

[Strawman]

4. I don't like the last line of that article. Jimmy Carter was no wimp

If anything he was somewhat hawkish. The Reagan defense buildup began under Jimmy Carter. And who ultimately capitulated more to the Iranians by arming them? Not Jimmy Carter.

Americans were tired of facing unpleasant realities that Carter did not lie to them about. They didn't want to hear him on their TV's anymore. Instead they chose a "B-Movie."