Reid: U.S. can't win the war in Iraq

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) said Thursday the war in Iraq is "lost," triggering an angry backlash by Republicans who said the top Democrat had turned his back on the troops.

The bleak assessment was the sharpest yet from Reid, who has vowed to send President Bush legislation calling for combat to end next year. Reid said he told Bush on Wednesday that he thought the war could not be won through military force and only through political, economic and diplomatic means.

"I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and — you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows — (know) this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday," said Reid, D-Nev.

Republicans pounced on the comment as evidence, they said, that Democrats do not support the troops.

"I can't begin to imagine how our troops in the field, who are risking their lives every day, are going to react when they get back to base and hear that the Democrat leader of the United States Senate has declared the war is lost," said Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (news, bio, voting record), R-Ky.

The exchange came as the House headed toward a vote Thursday on whether to demand that troops leave Iraq next year. Last month, the House passed legislation that funded the war in Iraq but ordered combat missions to end by September 2008. The Senate passed similar, less-sweeping legislation that would set a nonbinding goal of bringing combat troops home by March 31, 2008.

Bush said he would veto either measure and warned that troops are being harmed by Congress' failure to deliver the funds quickly.

The Pentagon says it has enough money to pay for the Iraq war through June. The Army is taking "prudent measures" aimed at ensuring that delays in the bill financing the war do not harm troop readiness, according to instructions sent to Army commanders and budget officials April 14.

While $70 billion that Congress provided in September for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan has mostly run out, the Army has told department officials to slow the purchase of nonessential repair parts and other supplies, restrict the use of government charge cards, and limit travel.

The Army also will delay contracts for facilities repair and environmental restoration, according to instructions from Army Comptroller Nelson Ford. He said the accounting moves are similar to those enacted last year when the Republican-led Congress did not deliver a war funding bill to Bush until mid-June.

More stringent steps would be taken in May, such as a hiring freeze and firing temporary employees, but exceptions are made for any war-related activities or anything that "would result immediately in the degradation of readiness standards" for troops in Iraq or those slated for deployment.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called the Democrat's stance "disturbing" and all but dared Reid to cut off funding for the war.

"If this is his true feeling, then it makes one wonder if he has the courage of his convictions and therefore will decide to defund the war," she said.

Reid has left that possibility open. The majority leader supports separate legislation that would cut off funding for combat missions after March 2008. The proposal would allow money spent on such efforts as counterterrorism efforts and training Iraqi security forces.

Reid and other Democrats were initially reluctant to discuss such draconian measures to end the war, but no longer.

"I'm not sure much is impossible legislatively," Reid said Thursday. "The American people have indicated . . . that they are fed up with what's going on."

I was especially impressed by this letter to Reid that Michelle Malkin posted in her blog

Senator Reid,

I am a US Army Reservist. I was activated in March 2005 and served on FOB Abu Ghraib, Iraq from June 2005 until May 2006. I was First Sergeant for a Medical Task Force responsible for all detainee health care in Iraq. My unit was awarded the Meritorious Unit Commendation for our accomplishments and I received the Bronze Star for my achievements. I certainly hope you can sense the pride I have in my unit and my service. That pride will soon be stripped from me in defeat.

My father is a Vietnam veteran; a Captain in Saigon. Like me, he was a volunteer and was awarded the Bronze Star. He began his tour when I was two weeks old. While I was growing up, I heard over and over again in classes from grade school well into college how the United States lost the war in Vietnam. I wondered how he could be so proud in defeat. I see now that it is happening to me how his pride and accomplishments were stripped from him on a rooftop in soon-to-be Ho Chi Minh City.

The Democrats have wanted Iraq to become a Vietnam for George Bush from the start. You, sir, finally have your Vietnam parallel. This war has been pure politics for you and the Democrats. You have now conceded defeat when the Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and Airmen have not. And my children will have their parallel as well. They will wonder how I can be so proud in defeat. The only question that remains is whether my defeat will be a dramatic airlift off a rooftop or whether it will be an impotent crawl across the Kuwait border.

From the beginning you and your ilk have sat on the sidelines, our sidelines, declaring the immorality, illegality, and the futility of your country's efforts. In emergency medicine there is an old saying; if your patient believes he is dying, he probably will. Your stance on Iraq will prove to be just that sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. To my children, I will have to explain how the war was declared "illegal" by a bunch of politicians who readily admit they didn't read the authorization to use force that they signed. And how Hans Blix didn't really declare that the inspections were working, only that they would keep Hussein from doing too much. And how Hussein violated every resolution the UN threw at him. And how the Democrats connived the US into thinking the war was all about Big Oil and Haliburton without batting an eye at the corruption surrounding Total Fina Elf, Yukos, and the Oil for Food program. And that the only shred of illegality surrounding the war is the lack of sanction by the very institution, the UN, that sat by idly and allowed a brutal thug to buy their morality.

This loss will be compared to Vietnam, as you wish, but the loss will not be mine. It will be yours. It will be Speaker Pelosi's. It will be the Democrats' loss, forever and ever. In fact, since the Democrats' conceded defeat in both Iraq and Vietnam when we were winning militarily, the only Vietnam parallel you will likely achieve is how the Democrats so readily accept defeat.

We are winning this war. Just look at the signs. The enemy cannot safely wear uniforms, they cannot confront us directly, and instead they hide amongst and target unarmed civilians. When they succeed in blowing up an unsuspecting marketplace, they can count on you to dutifully deliver the big sound bite about how the civilian body count is direct evidence that the war is lost. Then you tell the same enemy that all they need to do is kill more civilians and wait, kill more civilians and wait, kill more civilians and wait. They were waiting for 2009 but, fortunately for them, "elections have consequences."

This is not the 1960's or '70's. This is the information age and, sir, there is simply too much information about this war that contradicts your statements and actions. History will not be kind to you.

-- 1SG Steven G. Cotton

I also checked dingy Harry's bio to see if he ever did everany military and to my non-surprise, he did not

Source

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Proof that Reid works for our enemies