UPDATE: Perhaps I spoke too soon… Either way, they need a good continual reminder to stay strong. Rock the house Pelosi!
First of all, the Democrats need to grow some balls. I can’t fucking believe that they went through the whole process of proving a point by putting the time line requirement in that bill, only to drop it when Bush vetoed it. WTF?
Democrats! Listen up! You are our voice! So stop slinking back into the corner when big bad Bush says no! You should have sent the exact same bill back to his ass, and said, HERE is our compromise. In fact, they should have tacked on a few more million dollars for the troops, and then sent it back; that would prove the point that this isn’t about the money for the troops, it is about ending this war. Point is, it doesn’t even matter about this bill, as there is funding for the war through at least July; this is a supplemental bill. If the Bush administration wanted the troops to have the things this bill allocates, it would have been in the national budget that he sent to congress for this year. It wasn’t, hence the need for said bill.
Now, I want to say this to the congressional and senatorial democrats: You need to stand up for the politics you believe in, and stop letting Bush walk all over this country. I am appalled that they caved so quickly.
I am, however, trying to cling to the tiny bit of hope that by trying to sneak in different requirements, and actually require that a real plan for ending the war be developed, they are still focused and unwavering in the conviction necessary to end the war. Additionally, these requirements will hopefully stop people from reusing this “we can’t pull out, it would be disaster!” nonsense, as a slightly different plan will be in place. I am not happy that we are settling for “benchmarks” and requirements to report back to Congress as an alternative to getting the fuck out of there, because frankly, it doesn’t matter how long we stick around; the democracy we are shoving down their throats is not going to take unless THEY develop and accept it. We cannot continue killing their people and policing their civil war, and truly expect them to have an epiphany one afternoon and start being democratic. I am, however, truly excited to see that there are democrats and republicans starting to come together and work together on this. THAT is progress; even if it isn’t the level of progress I would like to see.
If the thing that needs to happen is that Iraq needs to be split into different factions, regions, states, or even countries, it is something that they have to work out. We can provide them the help, money, support, etc. that they need, but we cannot truly expect them to take it or for them to change if we occupy their country, and continue fueling a civil war.
I am so sick of this bullshit. I wish that all of this would have never happened. I wish Al Gore would have actually been able to take the presidency he won. Perhaps we would be in a totally different state of being right now; but unfortunately, that is moot. The fact is, that we need to accept that things have gone batshit crazy, come up with a plan to get the fuck out, and GET THE FUCK OUT OF IRAQ. Pussyfooting around and playing politics (BOTH SIDES), is obviously doing more backpedaling than anything, and it needs to stop. Regardless of what is going on in DC, we are still at war with Iraq (and WHY?!). Every day that this war goes on is a day wasted. And it is getting really, really old.