If you gotta go, go now...
It finally seems as though the Democrats on Capital Hill are getting it together. No longer led by the feckless duo of Daschle and Gephardt; they seem to have gotten their act together. They've stopped "Social Security Reform" dead in its tracks. They won the first skirmish over the Patriot Act. They gained the high ground on the Supreme Court battle to come. They're emboldened. And with the War in Iraq, the issue thats beaten them in two elections suddenly turning in their favor, they're pushing for a timeline for withdrawal and scoring some major political points.

Read about Feingold's and Pelosi's efforts to get such a timeline right below:

http://www.wisdems.org/index.php?display=ReleaseDetails&id=554104
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=48882

That's right! They're strong! They're in control! They're scoring points with the public! And they're dead wrong.

I don't know how to say this. This is only my third post, and I'm nervous. But. But... but........

I...I....

agree with the president.

Its a mistake to leave now. Its a mistake to make a timeline to leave.

Look. The USA invaded another country under false pretenses. We did a good thing in getting rid of Saddam. A good thing in helping the Iraqis have elections. But at this point, there are two goals for Iraq:

1) That it evolve into a functioning Democracy. As "long time readers" of this blog will know. A Democracy is more then a place where people vote. Its a place where people can and do participate in their government. Iraq, isn't there yet. Unfortunately, they need our strength, both militarily, finnancially, and yes, as a role model; to get there. We've done about a quarter of the job.
2) This invasion a long time ago was about something to do with terrorism. We need to do what we can there to help win something called the War on Terrorism. Leave a fledgling country without a real military and police force in that sort of the world, and we'll be big losers.

So in short, I think John Kerry was correct. This was in Iraq wasn't the best use of resources in our War on Terrorism, but now that we're there, we need to finish the job.
- posted by Damien Newton @ 1:33 PM