A Surge of Question-Evasion

Considering that this is a stunt designed to make her look bad, I think Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA) actually acquits herself quite well in this confrontation:

Nevertheless, it's telling that the method by which she acquits herself is by evading the substance of the Iraq issue and instead hiding behind General Petraeus' fatigues and his looming September report. I think that makes for an answer you can get away with in July, and it's an answer you can get away with in August, and I can even imagine a sufficiently propagandistic and dishonest report (you know, the kind of report they're working on) might give a boost to the viability of the pro-war position. But even if it's a big boost how long is it supposed to last?

Three weeks? Seven? Even three months wouldn't be nearly long enough and any report-related boost certainly won't last that long. For the past two years or so, the administration keeps finding that even its cleverest stunts can't overcome the steady drumbeat of reality, and if House Republicans haven't figured that out yet they may be a steep price.

Comments

Regardless of the reasons why the United States chose to invade Iraq or even why a US presence remains there today, it is clear that the Bush Administration is putting too many of its resources—OUR resources— into remaining there. To date, the war has cost over $340 billion dollars—money which could have been spent much more wisely and with better end results. It is estimated, for example, that the expenditure of a mere $19 billion would eliminate starvation and malnutrition worldwide. In a time when the current defense budget is $522 billion, the goal of eradicating world hunger is clearly well within reach. Thus, it is clear that the occupation of Iraq needs to end, and it needs to end now without regard to what this will do to United States interest in Iraq’s oil. There are simply much more important issues that need to be addressed.

Posted by Jessica | July 9, 2007 7:27 PM

if House Republicans haven't figured that out yet they may be a steep price.

We can certainly hope so. Seeing these clowns sent to political oblivion en masse wouldn't make up for the past years, but it'd be a good down payment. More practically, strong electoral punishment would be a good deterrent to any who might want to try the same thing in the future.

Posted by jimBOB | July 9, 2007 8:01 PM

"the steady drumbeat of reality"

Does that reality include the sea change in the Anbar province, where the war effort was considered "lost" last fall? According to John Burns in yesterday's NY Times, in Ramadi (the provincial capital of Anbar), "In February, the extremists were averaging 30 to 35 attacks daily. By late June, the average was down to one a day, and the Americans had counted nearly 50 days with no attacks at all."

The only "steady drumbeat of reality" anyone in D.C. cares about is the steady drumbeat of the '08 elections. Otherwise, you wouldn't have politicians (including liberal Republicans like Olympia Snowe) proposing that we return to the failed Casey-era strategy of training Iraqi troops and staying in the background. As John Burns pointed out in yesterday's article, that strategy isn't what turned around Anbar. As Burns wrote:

"The key to turning that around was the shift in allegiance by tribal sheiks. But the sheiks turned only after a prolonged offensive [a "surge"?] by American and Iraqi forces, starting in November, that put Al Qaeda groups on the run, in Ramadi and elsewhere across western Anbar."

"Not for the first time, the Americans learned a basic lesson of warfare here: that Iraqis, bludgeoned for 24 years by Saddam Hussein’s terror, are wary of rising against any force, however brutal, until it is in retreat. In Anbar, Sunni extremists were the dominant force, with near-total popular support or acquiescence, until the offensive broke their power."

Posted by Harry | July 9, 2007 9:04 PM

Harry, does your reality include the fact that the Jihadists who fled Al-Anbar simply relocated to Baghdad and Diyala Province, where they continue to kill US troops and Iraqi civilians at a greater rate than ever before?

Feel free to keep up the drumbeat of half-truths, wishful thinking, and facile ideas about changing reality via "force." Just don't be surprised that nobody is buying it anymore.

Posted by LaFollette Progressive | July 10, 2007 12:51 AM

Wow, the surge in Baghdad has magically pacified someplace completely different! Bush is a genius!

Posted by Steve | July 10, 2007 12:52 AM

harry confirms that for a certain class of war supporters, "look at anbar province" is 2007's equivalent of "look at all the painted schools."

Posted by howard | July 10, 2007 2:11 AM