How Sad When A Liberal Calls The Democrats: “Illiterate” And Willfully, Cynically Blind About Iraq

Lawrence F. Kaplan wrote Congressional leaders are illiterate on Iraq:Knowledge Gap for TNR.  Ace advised that it is a: Smokin’ piece from The New Republic (registration required; try usuck/usuck).

Maybe it was a slip of the tongue. But, when Nancy Pelosi confessed last year that she felt “sad” about President Bush’s claims that Al Qaeda operates in Iraq, she seemed to be disputing what every American soldier in Iraq, every Al Qaeda operative, and anyone who reads a newspaper already knew to be true. (When I questioned him about Pelosi’s assertion, a U.S. officer in Ramadi responded, incredulously, that Al Qaeda had just held a parade in his sector.) Perhaps the House speaker was alluding to the discredited claim that Al Qaeda operated in Iraq before the war. Perhaps. But the insinuation that Al Qaeda’s depredations in Iraq might be something other than what they appear to be has become a staple of the congressional debate over Iraq. Thus, to buttress his own case for withdrawal, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “We have to change course [away from Iraq] and turn our attention back to the war on Al Qaeda and their allies”–the clear message being that neither plays much of a role there.What is going on here? There are two possibilities: First, Reid and Pelosi could be purposefully minimizing the stakes in Iraq. Or, second, they don’t know what they’re talking about. My guess is some combination of the two. Political maneuvering certainly contributes to the everyday pollution of Iraq discourse. But a lot of the pollution derives from legislators being functionally illiterate about the war over which Congress now intends to preside….

…

Obliviousness, after all, has its uses. It comforts the sensibilities of politicians whose varying levels of awareness allow them to favor certain facts and not others….

Most of all, illiteracy makes for good politics. There is the conviction, to paraphrase McCain, that winning a war takes precedence over winning an election. But it isn’t so clear that this conviction guides a partisan brawl in which the Senate majority leader can gush, “We’re going to pick up Senate seats as a result of this war.”

…

Though Reid has no use for the Bush administration’s military “surge,” he does propose a “surge in diplomacy,” in line with the cliché that the war has no military solution. As The Washington Post’s David Broder has pointed out, “Instead of reinforcing the important proposition … that a military strategy for Iraq is necessary but not sufficient to solve the myriad political problems of that country, Reid has mistakenly argued that the military effort is lost but a diplomatic-political strategy can succeed….” In fact, the one brand of diplomacy that truly matters in Iraq–the U.S. Army’s tribal diplomacy, which accounts for the recent turn-around in Anbar Province–is precisely the mission that Reid’s demand for a skeleton force would shut down.

Where all this leads is clear. Piece together a string of demonstrably false “facts on the ground” from a suitably safe remove, and you’re left with a scenario where we can walk away from Iraq without condition and regardless of consequence. You don’t need to watch terrified Iraqis pleading for American forces to stay put in their neighborhoods. You don’t need to read the latest National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, which anticipates that a precipitous U.S. withdrawal will end in catastrophe. Why, in the serene conviction that things are the other way around, you don’t even need to read at all. Chances are, your congressman doesn’t either.

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Please see Oppose Reid

4/29/2007

Oppose Reid

Filed under: General , Demonrats @ 4:43 pm

Hey Reid, maybe you should check with the military instead of guys like John Kerry who’ve sold out their country with the enemy before! Just remember, Harry, you’re walking a slippery slope….as GM Roper put it in this post (graphic from GM’s also), quoting from the Review Journal: 

Sen. Reid and his colleagues know there is much political hay to be made by criticizing President Bush’s planning and conduct of the post-war occupation. But they also know that while “cut our losses and pull out” plays well in Democratic caucuses, it failed in the Connecticut general election in 2006, when Sen. Joseph Lieberman and his anti-surrender stance handily defeated end-the-war candidate Ned Lamont — even though Sen. Lieberman had to run as an independent to pull it off.

That’s the kind of “poll” that really counts.

Hello All,A fellow Nevadan and I have created a site where Nevadans and Americans alike can express their disgust with and opposition to Harry Reid.We oppose his stance on Iraq. We oppose his adverse support of our troops. We oppose his defection to the lunatic wing of the (D) party. And we oppose his betrayal of the will of the people of Nevada.

Please spread the word, post a link, do whatever is in your power to help us get this off the ground.

We are selling bumper stickers and will have in place shortly a process with which you may send flowers to the senator (yellow pansies to be exact). These are the first two of hopefully more campaigns to express the country’s disapproval of Harry Reid.

I have held the belief since my deployment in Desert Storm that “support of the troops is not about the intent, but rather about the effect”. I learned this lesson first hand and I stand by it. As long as our troops’ morale and welfare is adversely effected by the games the (D)s are going to play, we need to stand in very vocal opposition to them.

This also means putting the fire under the butts of our (R) representatives and our President. Right now, they are getting their butts handed to them because they are not vocal and passionate enough about this battle in D.C.

We are losing the PR war at home. This is no longer about Iraq per se, this is about protecting our troops, their mission, and their families from another Vietnam. Are we willing to put this country and our finest men and women through this again?

I think not. And we are going to do our damned-est to see that it doesn’t happen.

Thanks for your time.

Semper Fi,

//jay
aka jcrue

http://opposereid.com
http://jcrue.wordpress.com

New website called “Oppose Reid” pass it on, link to it, mention it in a post. Join the discussion, sign up for the blogroll, and let’s get the initiative off the ground!!!!

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