Washington Post says this of the Democrats war plan:
It makes perfect sense, if the goal is winning votes in the United States.There's more:
THE RESTRICTIONS on Iraq war funding drawn up by the House Democratic leadership are exquisitely tailored to bring together the party's leftist and centrist wings. For the Out of Iraq Caucus, which demands that Congress force a withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of this year, there is language that appears to deliver that mandate, albeit indirectly. For those who prefer a more moderate course, there is another withdrawal deadline, in August 2008. Either way, almost all American troops would be out of Iraq by the time the next election campaign begins in earnest. And there are plenty of enticements on the side: more money for wounded veterans, for children's health, for post-Hurricane Katrina reconstruction.Go read the rest here.It's moot anyway because they already caved and removed the language from the bill but it's good to see that someone in the MSM is willing to call the Democrats to task for their ill-conceived plan. It clearly is meant to get the troops out by the time of the next election whether the Iraqis are ready or not. I wonder if they have given any thought to what Iraq would look like by November 2008 if we pulled out by August 2008 and would America really want to vote for the authors of such a mess (yes, it would be their war at that point -- you seize control of it, you own it).
The only constituency House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ignored in her plan for amending President Bush's supplemental war funding bill are the people of the country that U.S. troops are fighting to stabilize. The Democratic proposal doesn't attempt to answer the question of why August 2008 is the right moment for the Iraqi government to lose all support from U.S. combat units. It doesn't hint at what might happen if American forces were to leave at the end of this year -- a development that would be triggered by the Iraqi government's weakness. It doesn't explain how continued U.S. interests in Iraq, which holds the world's second-largest oil reserves and a substantial cadre of al-Qaeda militants, would be protected after 2008; in fact, it may prohibit U.S. forces from returning once they leave.
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