SAUNDERS: Feinstein's phased pandering

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 6/20/6 | Debra J. Saunders

[SmithL]

HOW IS AMERICA supposed to win the war in Iraq when so many partisans in Washington -- including high-profile Democrats who voted for the October 2002 war resolution -- aren't doing everything in their power to make sure America prevails in Iraq?

Many Washington Dems seem to have devoted the last month instead to answering the question: With friends like these, who needs enemies?

The answer is: Not U.S. troops.

The "phased deployment" crowd -- to use Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's euphemism for cut-and-run -- does not seem to understand that when elected officials vote in favor of a war resolution, they assume a solemn responsibility to the troops who carry out their mandate. To wit, Congress is not supposed to follow a war vote with actions that undermine the war effort.

Yet that is exactly what Feinstein, who voted for the war resolution, is poised to do today as she introduces an amendment calling on President Bush to set up a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops starting this year. Feinstein's cosponsors are fellow Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Ken Salazar of Colorado -- although it should be noted that Levin and Reed voted against the Iraq war resolution, while Salazar was not in the Senate in 2002.

[SmithL]

"Cut and Run" makes one heck of a war cry!

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

SAUNDERS NAILS IT:

Congress is not supposed to follow a war vote with actions that undermine the war effort.

[digger48]

Feinstein explained in a press release that, after three years in Iraq, "an open-ended commitment is no longer sustainable." Sunday she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "Three years and three months into a mission that was supposed to take 30 or 40 days. That isn't cutting and running."

I asked last night....does anybody have any idea where she got this? Sure as hell wasn't anybody in the Administration that I can recall!

[JoeSixPack1]

"Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should be arrested, exiled, or hanged."
- Abraham Lincoln

[Carry_Okie]

During the next election, I want to see photos of the killing fields of Cambodia superimposed with notices quoted from newspapers that a Democrat congress cut off the funding to the Vietnamese government.

Follow it up with quotes from prominent legislators of the time. Then finish it up with the following:

Wasn't two million dead enough for them?

[JoanneSD]

Where on earth did Di Fi get the notion that the war would end in 30 opr 40 days...I do not remember any one in this adminstration even mentioning that... however I do remember the past impeached president Bj cliton saying we would be out of Bosnia in one year...

[nosofar]

Feinstein explained in a press release that, after three years in Iraq, "an open-ended commitment is no longer sustainable."

Wow. So she's saying the U.S. is so full of wimps that we can't sustain even three years? I tend to agree with people like this running the country.