Before political correctness, a person who gave someone a gift and later
took it back was called an "Indian giver."
This is what a majority in the House did last week when they "gave" their
support to American forces fighting to stabilize Iraq and defeat our enemy
and then promptly took it back. How else should one interpret this
"nonbinding" resolution when part one said, "Congress and the American
people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States
Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in
Iraq," but part two negates part one: "Congress disapproves of the decision
of President George W. Bush announced on Jan. 10, 2007, to deploy more than
20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq."
This is like sending your love a valentine last week and this week sending a
note withdrawing the sentiment.
Last Saturday, Republicans managed to block a similar effort in the Senate,
but by only four votes. Senate Democrats - and a few like-minded Republicans
- vowed to try again.
Once, most members of Congress supported the president's prosecution of the
war. That was when his approval numbers were sky-high. Now that those
numbers have fallen, so has congressional support. Most Democrats claim,
falsely, that the November election was a referendum on the war. If the
president's policy succeeds, though, two things will happen. First, some
members who opposed him will claim they were behind the troop surge all
along. Second, most Democrats will assert that success is actually failure
because they can't afford politically to admit they were wrong.
Do the troops feel supported by this House resolution? There are no opinion
polls of military and civilian workers in Iraq, but two comments have come
to my attention. One is a letter to the editor of The Washington Times from
John McFarlane, a military trainer for Northrop-Grumman Technical Services
in Elizabethtown, Ky. McFarlane writes that he has just returned from Iraq
"after coming out of retirement to go there Š I can tell you that the
greatest fear of the young service members over there is that the American
public will fail to pursue total victory and will leave early, thereby
wasting their battle buddies' life and blood. They feel pain every time
somebody pays lip service to his or her conscience with the line: ŒI support
the troops, but not the policy.' (They) know they are the policy and that
you should feel shame if you as an American would commit them to anything
less than total victory."