Democrats in Congress bristle when Republicans accuse them of wanting to "cut and run" in Iraq. But here at home, in terms of the politics of the war, that's exactly what they're doing.
Democrats have decided that the Iraq conflict is one ugly baby, and
they're right about that. But from their rhetoric and short memories, you'd
never know they were directly involved in its conception.
That became evident when Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., a member of the
House Armed Services Committee, sat down for a meeting with the editorial
board of The San Diego Union-Tribune. When asked what might happen in Iraq
if Democrats reclaimed the House of Representatives next month, and
possibly the White House in 2008, Davis tried to temper expectations by
blaming Republicans for botching the war effort.
"Well," she said, "you know, it's always difficult to clean up
someone else's mess."
Let's recap. A majority of Democrats in Congress voted to give
President Bush the authority to go to war in Iraq in 2002, and then voted
-- more than once -- to continue to fund the effort. Some Democrats even hit the talk shows early on and made the case that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, or that a war in Iraq figured into the war on terror. And in the 2004 Democratic primary, the most outspoken critic of the war -- former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean -- was treated by several of his opponents as some crazy uncle who didn't understand the stakes in Iraq or the weight of decisions that had to be made by Democratic members of Congress.
Members such as Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. After Kerry became their
presidential nominee, Democrats put on quite a show at their national
convention, where -- despite the anti-war leanings of delegates -- one
speaker after another talked tough, saluted the flag and promised to hunt
down terrorists wherever they were.
And now, Democrats want to turn on a dime and pretend as if the Iraq
War is someone else's mess. With Iraq embroiled in civil war and U.S.
troops overstaying their welcome, it's a mess all right. But let's be
clear: It's a mess that Democrats helped make.
What's unclear is where they intend to go from here if they get the
chance to lead the country. Many opponents of the war take it as a given
that if the Democrats take the White House, an immediate pullout of U.S.
troops would commence.
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