July 16, 2007

Lugar, Warner, Voinovich and Domenici: The Latest Iraq War Cowards

Richard Lugar, John Warner, George Voinovich and Pete Domenici are Republican U.S. senators defending liberty. Their own. From the fear of losing re-election in 2008.

As for the liberty of 20 million Iraqis, the establishment of democratic institutions in the Middle East and the national security of the United States, to hell with that. They have themselves to think about.

Lugar, Warner, Voinovich and Domenici have joined charter members in the Coward Club, like Nebraska’s Chuck Hagel and Maine’s Olympia Snowe, in turning their backs on America’s quest for victory in Iraq – all because the American people have become convinced Iraq is a lost cause, and it’s too much work to present the facts that suggest otherwise.

Among these facts:

• Sectarian violence in June was reported at its lowest level in a year. Reinforced U.S. troop levels are combining with Iraqi forces to establish a perimeter around Baghdad, aggressively pursue Al Qaeda forces and domestic insurgents and force Al Qaeda to pick more remote targets like the small village of Amirli in Kirkuk, rather than the central city.

• Sunni tribal leaders are revolting against Al Qaeda in increasing numbers, recognizing that a constructive place in a democratic Iraqi government is the best avenue for them to address the needs of the Sunni people.

• U.S. and Iraqi forces are also effectively isolating Al Qaeda bases within Baghdad so they cannot effectively communicate, coordinate or share supplies.

• Shiite militias have been neutralized in Baghdad and Sadr City, leading to a dramatic reduction in the number of execution-style killings that were their hallmark.

That’s pretty good progress considering that the U.S. troop surge only arrived in full force in mid-June, and U.S. commander Gen. David Petraeus said all along it would be September before he could give a comprehensive progress report.

But don’t tell any of this to a panicky U.S. senator who is up for re-election in 16 months. Not even Lugar, who has served in the Senate since 1977 and comes from one of the reddest states in the nation.

Now Lugar and Warner have introduced completely irresponsible legislation attempting to limit the mission in Iraq – a de facto surrender – only to have the administration once again reject such nonsense.

Contrary to what the drumbeat of media headlines would have you believe, Republican senators are not abandoning the Bush administration’s Iraq policy en masse. The latest Democratic attempt to force America’s surrender will have, at most, seven Republican cowards behind it. But the 42 stalwarts don’t make for very interesting copy, and senators worried about losing their comfy seats are very publicly begging the administration to change its strategy.

Change to what? Anything that will take the pressure off them. They don’t want to defend the war effort. That will bring them too much heat. And aside from the self-important Hagel, they don’t want to go gloves-off against the administration, because all they’re doing at that point is conceding the issue to their Democratic opponents, who will browbeat them with it regardless of the position they take.

When Congress voted in May to continue funding the war effort and let Petraeus have the time he said he needed to make the surge work, the Nervous Nellies had no idea the polls would be so bad. Give Petraeus another two months? Are you crazy? There’s an election 16 months away!

The delighted mainstream media report almost daily about the latest GOP senator who is abandoning Bush on Iraq and declaring the strategy a failure, even though the strategy just got underway and is achieving its goals ahead of schedule.

The objective of the strategy, or so it would appear they think, is to take the political pressure off them, and since they’ve seen no evidence of that yet, they’re ready to pull up stakes, hand Iraq over to Al Qaeda and the Iranians and wait for those poll numbers to start rising like ocean mercury in Al Gore’s fantasies.

Lugar, Warner, Voinovich and Domenici are cowards. The newly released report on “benchmarks” for the Iraqi government gives them the excuse they need to pretend all is lost and beg Bush to stop trying. Bush won’t give them what they want, of course, because he actually has to think about the future of the Middle East and its implications for America’s security.

The cowards are pursuing a dumb strategy anyway. To the extent that Iraq drives the 2008 election results, the only thing that will make it positive for Republicans will be strong, top-of-the-ticket advocacy for the pursuit of victory, along with an effective effort to make the public see the real progress on the ground.

That might save the cowards’ political fortunes, which would be as unworthy an achievement as this country has seen in some time.