No Timeline for the Iraqis

The House Democrats withdrew the timeline provision from the wartime supplemental funding bill and are going to send the bill to the White House without this constraint. They will reexamine the bill in four months when supposedly, the real fight for war funding will happen. Hopefully it will be a legitimate and honest debate in September, but based on the past performance of this new congress, the chances of that happening are slim to none. I am glad that there is no timetable though I am opposed to our involvement in Iraq. I am also, practically speaking, interested in the situation not escalating beyond the borders. That is why we can’t leave – not just yet and not for a while.

Cutting off funding to the troops isn’t, and has never been, an effective alternative strategy. It sends a bad message. By doing so we are severely undercutting the ability of our army to function in the field. By setting a timeline for withdrawal, you might as well just send a greeting card to each soldier, using the Congressional frank of course, telling them you don’t give a shit about what they’re doing.

Congressmen in favor of a timeline patronizingly tell soldiers that they are doing this as an attempt to save lives. A timeline doesn’t save anybodies life – it emboldens the enemy. In addition to the lip service about saving soldiers, there is also a very real political debt owed to the anti-war base of the Democratic Party. There are better ways to save lives than a timetable provision to a wartime funding bill like, say, a stabilization strategy for a nation that has erupted into ruin and chaos.

By setting a timeline you are conceding defeat in Iraq and writing it off the daily actions of our soldiers on patrol as futile. A phased withdrawal is a lost cause. The theory is that we will bolster the Iraqis to become more accountable but instead, my suspicion is that we’ll be inviting more chaos. What is imperative in warfare is to allow the commanders in the field the ability to directly assess their own situations and for civilians to offer them flexibility in the implementation of their strategy. Setting a timetable is like asking a one armed general to play wide receiver.

If congress wants to do something productive, there are other things it can do. Unfortunately, they take guts and not just political posturing. The two issues of the war that congress has repeatedly failed to address through proper oversight are: First, the causes of this war and the responsibility for the anarchy in Iraq in 2003-2004: Second, the repeated reinforcement of a failed strategy for three years before the surge of February 2007. If the people are mad at the administration for getting us into a situation where we now have to fight it out, then punish the administration for causing the war and don’t, instead, punish the troops oversees. Have some guts and go after the people responsible for this debacle.

Congress should investigate the causes of this war and expose through official report how the administration got us into this war, aided by their own failure to effectively check executive power, and censure those responsible. They need to stop talking about how they were misled and start taking some responsibility for themselves since they are all implicated in this war as well. Standing by and doing nothing in the face of injustice is sometimes just as immoral as committing the act itself.

We were not just unjustly taken into war – the war has been a colossal military blunder from the start too. Congress should hold hearings with current and former soldiers, from senior commanders down through platoon grade officers, to properly assess where we have been and where we need to go and show the public the real situation in Iraq. We need to know if there is a future in Iraq that is winnable and what exactly winning can (and will) look like. Based on the administration’s rhetoric, we have no idea of either of these, and presumably, neither do they.

We need an accurate picture so that the American people can make their own decision next year in the leadership we deserve. Although congress has repeatedly failed in their oversight of this administration for six years, now there is an opportunity for a real examination of the administration. It’s a lot easier to posture or to protest – but it takes real courage to pick a real fight and hold your ground against a goliath. This is what voters asked for last fall – and its what we expect.