After Iraq Trip, Grim Resolve: Jan Schakowsky

[cal04]

When Rep. Jan Schakowsky made her first trip to Iraq this month, the outspoken antiwar liberal resolved to keep her opinions to herself. "I would listen and learn," she decided.

At times that proved a challenge, as when Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih told her congressional delegation, "There's not going to be political reconciliation by this September; there's not going to be political reconciliation by next September." Schakowsky gulped -- wasn't that the whole idea of President Bush's troop increase, to buy time for that political progress?

But the real test came over a lunch with Gen. David H. Petraeus, who used charts and a laser pointer to show how security conditions were gradually improving -- evidence, he argued, that the troop increase is doing some good.

(snip)
The lack of political progress among Iraq's rival factions and Petraeus's estimate of the time needed to stabilize the nation left Schakowsky all the more convinced that Democrats must force Bush to begin bringing troops home.

"This is not the structure that's going to say, 'Why? Why are we here? What are we really accomplishing here?' The mission is to take down the bad guys, to establish order," she said of her sessions with Petraeus and other military leaders. The meetings "made me feel more determined that the policy is going to have to be set in Washington, that the Congress is going to have to exert its will here to end this war."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/25/AR2007082500991.html?hpid=topnews

[Robbien]

1. She's great

But Petraeus' argument for staying

"He said: 'If you don't like the humanitarian crisis, the refugees and the internally displaced people, you can't draw down. If you are concerned about these people, the humanitarian crisis, you should be for our staying here.' "

That is what is happening now. Now, with us there, there are tens of millions of Iraqi refugees in surrounding countries. Now, with us there, there are tens of millions of internally displaced Iraqis. Now, with us there, this is a humanitarian crisis. Now, with us there, no Iraqi can walk out his/her door and reasonably expect to arrive back home safe at the end of the day. Now, with us there, no security, no clean water, no clean streets, no electricity, no nothing.

It can only get better if we leave.