Bush Broke Baghdad, But Democrats Still Break on Clean-Up
Wesley Clark Says Wait, Detach Gracefully; Hillary Still Hovering; Barack on Iraq: Pack
By: Jason Horowitz
New York Observer
So now that the Democrats have won control of Congress, what should they do about the war in Iraq?
“I never understand that question,” answered Charlie Rangel, the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “You have a President that’s in deep shit. He got us into the war, and all the reasons he gave have been proven invalid, and the whole electorate was so pissed off that they got rid of anyone they could have, and then they ask, ‘What is the Democrats’ solution?’”
For many Democrats, Iraq is George Bush’s war, a Republican conflict that they are powerless to influence. They’ve also calculated—correctly, to judge by the midterm elections—that the voting public understands that the G.O.P. is responsible for the hellish situation in Iraq that now threatens to destabilize the entire Middle East.
Even after the election, which gave control of both houses of Congress to the Democrats, the party’s strategy on dealing with the day’s dominant policy issue has been collected, if highly reactive—while the Republicans, for once, have torn themselves to pieces amid recriminations over the war that wrecked their ruling majority.
But although it hasn’t received as much attention, the Democrats are divided, too.
The Democrats in Congress—especially those who opposed the war every step of the way—are loath to do anything that might give them an obvious stake in the war’s future.
It’s a very different calculus, meanwhile, for those Democrats harboring hopes of capturing the White House in 2008. As the killing in Baghdad intensifies—and almost everyone believes that it will continue to do so—some potential candidates are trying to articulate coherent positions now. They understand that this issue isn’t simply going to disappear in the next two years, and they argue that opposition alone doesn’t constitute a credible foreign-policy position.
“The question is, are you just going to fold up and leave regardless of the situation on the ground, or can you, through diplomacy, try and craft a more favorable exit?” said Gen. Wesley Clark, one likely Presidential nominee. “My argument is that you can.”
(The rest is here.)
By: Jason Horowitz
New York Observer
So now that the Democrats have won control of Congress, what should they do about the war in Iraq?
“I never understand that question,” answered Charlie Rangel, the incoming chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “You have a President that’s in deep shit. He got us into the war, and all the reasons he gave have been proven invalid, and the whole electorate was so pissed off that they got rid of anyone they could have, and then they ask, ‘What is the Democrats’ solution?’”
For many Democrats, Iraq is George Bush’s war, a Republican conflict that they are powerless to influence. They’ve also calculated—correctly, to judge by the midterm elections—that the voting public understands that the G.O.P. is responsible for the hellish situation in Iraq that now threatens to destabilize the entire Middle East.
Even after the election, which gave control of both houses of Congress to the Democrats, the party’s strategy on dealing with the day’s dominant policy issue has been collected, if highly reactive—while the Republicans, for once, have torn themselves to pieces amid recriminations over the war that wrecked their ruling majority.
But although it hasn’t received as much attention, the Democrats are divided, too.
The Democrats in Congress—especially those who opposed the war every step of the way—are loath to do anything that might give them an obvious stake in the war’s future.
It’s a very different calculus, meanwhile, for those Democrats harboring hopes of capturing the White House in 2008. As the killing in Baghdad intensifies—and almost everyone believes that it will continue to do so—some potential candidates are trying to articulate coherent positions now. They understand that this issue isn’t simply going to disappear in the next two years, and they argue that opposition alone doesn’t constitute a credible foreign-policy position.
“The question is, are you just going to fold up and leave regardless of the situation on the ground, or can you, through diplomacy, try and craft a more favorable exit?” said Gen. Wesley Clark, one likely Presidential nominee. “My argument is that you can.”
(The rest is here.)
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