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Isn't Bush's new plan for Iraq essentially the same thing as John Kerry's plan was back in '04? He said that if the Iraqi govt. doesn't get it's act together by November, we'll stop supporting them. Isn't that a time-table? I thought we were afraid of time-tables?
I think that's not a terrible idea, and adding additional troops to try to secure the peace in Bhagdad doesn't seem unreasonable to me though many say it's too few troops, i don't really know.
I think if there was some kind of benchmarks and expiration of the plan added in. He said he wants them to get it straight by November, make that a hard deadline with benchmarks for maybe August or September to get an idea as to whether November sees us pulling out altogether or continuing troop levels because they are working.
He also mentioned stepping up diplomacy and getting the whole region involved. I think that if we show some measure of success in this plan and don't commit more egregious cultural acts, this shouldn't be too difficult and could really help in securing the peace.
On the other hand, Bush and his handpicked teams have never actually done anything right. So no matter how good this plan is, I'm afraid it's like New Orleans Levies, great idea but not so ideal in practice.
I'm just not sure.
I am, however, sure that Democrats need to be supportive (though correcting) on this plan. If they attack it all out, like they seem to be doing, and it is successful, they're screwed. If they attack it successfully they can be blamed for failure in 08.
However, if the Dems support the plan with specifications and modifications then they can say, if it works, that their bi-partisan plan saved the day but if it fails they can blame the failure on Bush and his stupid plan. Either way, they need to continue investigating all the corruption they can find, especially republican corruption, and impeach or censure Bush for lying us into the war in the first place.
If we, the left, are both practical enough to be trying to move forward on iraq but righteous enough to investigate and prosecute for the past crimes of the administration, we can create a huge bloc of centrists and extremists but if we only attack the current plan and then wimp out on the past crimes of the administration, we deserve a continued Republican Empire.
Your thoughts?
2 comments:
Maybe I'm being overly pessimistic here, but I think regardless of the outcome, the republicans are going to play it up in 2008 somehow that the dems are responsible for any failure in Iraq. Given the slight chance that we don't fail in Iraq by the 2008 election, the republicans will be so busy patting themselves on the back that they will have to ice their welts.
I agree. That's why the Dems have to be cool now and do as much as they can to manage the situation to their own advantage. If they agree to a bi-partisanship "way forward" while kicking the administration's ass on past illegalities and shady dealings, they can keep the GOP on defense.
Set it up where either the GOP is pro-corruption or anti-Bush instead of the Pro-GOP or Anti-Victory meme that they're trying to angle for.
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