There is probably no single unelected, unappointed individual more responsible for our current mess in Iraq than William Kristol. Is he apologetic about it? Certainly not. At least publicly, he shows no remorse. It’s remarkable. He even goes so far as taunt opponents of the war for not going far enough to stop it. ‘Boneless Wonders’ is what he calls Congress.
So the Boneless Wonders will push a nonbinding resolution to, as Joe Biden put it, “demonstrate to the president he’s on his own.” Sure, the resolution will weaken the president’s hand abroad–but that’s not their problem. It will lessen the chances of success in Iraq–but that’s above their pay grade. It will dispirit friends and embolden enemies–but maybe there won’t be much attention paid overseas to some non-binding congressional resolution. It will send the message to the soldiers fighting in Iraq that help is not on the way–that there are no reinforcements. That’s unfortunate. But, hey–they volunteered.
And how about Sen. Obama on the Today show? “We’re not going to babysit a civil war.” To serious people that sounds juvenile. To most of his colleagues, it’s a good soundbite.
It’s a demoralizing and revolting spectacle.
There’s that term again. ‘Serious people’. Barack Obama is not a serious person. Serious people think the following:
Say you’re an average congressman. How do you react to President Bush’s Iraq speech? You suspect, deep down, that he’s probably doing more or less what he needs to do. We can’t just click our heels and get out of Iraq–the consequences would be disastrous.
We have to listen to Kristol because he is a leading neo-conservative intellectual at a time when neo-conservatives are setting our foreign policy. But we don’t have to grant that he is serious, or more serious than advocates of a phased withdrawal.
In reality it is not true that we cannot just click our heels and get out of Iraq. We can do exactly that. A phased withdrawal of our troops doesn’t preclude doing a four to sixth month security operation in Baghdad. If the President and the Iraqi Prime Minister think they can bring some security to the capital then they can take the troops they need to do it from other provinces. We don’t need a surge and we don’t need to wait to start bringing units home.
It’d be nice if we could get out the door before the Iraqi government gets strung up with piano wire but, hey, it’s not something we want to invest many more lives and billions to avoid.
When the Russians got whipped in Afghanistan they went home. Then they (and we) watched as warlords destroyed what little remained of the country. We don’t have to let that happen in Iraq. We can start negotiating now with the regional players to try to assure that Iraq doesn’t become a new Afghanistan. If the President wants some time to get those negotiations started, that’s understandable. But he ought to explain himself.
What is really going on is that William Kristol (and George W. Bush) doesn’t want to contemplate the consequences of defeat in Iraq. “The consequences would be disastrous’. But we must ask, to whom would the consequences be disastrous?
Why do we care whether or not Iran is emboldened? Emboldened to do what exactly? You think they want to trade places with us in Iraq and get sniped and IED’ed to pieces? You think they are going to launch a missile at Israel? Iran is not going to do a goddamn thing that really effects our interests and they are absolutely no threat to us, or to anyone else. You think that’s juvenile? I think it is juvenile for James Woolsey to go before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and say that Iran is not a democracy (it is) that it is genocidal (it is not) that they are out to destroy the West (that’s ludicrous) and that we ought to make regime change our official policy. I think that is juvenile. I think it is an absolute insult to the intelligence of Congress and I was absolutely revolted to see that Tom Lantos seeks out the testimony of the craziest and worst DCI in our nation’s history.
Iran is some kind of fever that seems to affect anyone that spends all their time thinking about the security of Israel. Woolsey (erroneously) referred to Lebanon’s Hizbollah as a ‘wholly owned subsidiary of Iran’. Hogwash. And the former DCI knows it is hogwash. But, you know what? I told you last summer that Israel was going to lose to Hizbollah and embolden the enemy. Maybe Tom Lantos should have me come testify before his committee. At least I have some predictive ability.
So how else might Iraq be disastrous? It will be disastrous if it splits into parts. Why? Because it could very well cause a war. And we won’t know whether to take the Saudis side against our wonderful Shi’a government, or the side of the Turks against the Kurds, or to sit the whole thing out and try to make sure we get to pump the gas if it ever gets back on line. The prospect of a regional war is the main reason that our allies are pressuring us to stay. But, we have to ask, how can such an outcome be avoided? I would think it could only be avoided through negotiations prior to our leaving. And that is exactly what this administration refuses to do. And since they won’t do it, the worst can only be avoided through sheer luck. Or, it could be avoided by a new administration that is willing to negotiate.
But it cannot be avoided by doing more of the same. Kristol is right that a non-binding resolution is an ineffective tool. He even recognizes courage when he sees it.
Thus, the Boneless Wonders. There are honorable exceptions, and not just among those who support the war. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) reminded his colleagues last week that “Congress is a co-equal branch of government.” He continued: “We have an urgent responsibility here. Congress under Article I, Section 8, has the war-making power. Congress appropriates funds for the war. Congress does not dispense with its obligation to the American people simply by opposing a troop surge in Iraq. It is simply not credible to maintain that one opposes the war, yet continues to fund it. If you oppose the war, then don’t vote to fund it.” Logical. But naive and quixotic, in the eyes of the Boneless Wonders.
One has to wonder about a man that recommends a course of action that leads the nation to this point of indecision and agony and then taunts those that are uncertain about what course to take.
