Posted by olvlzl.
In May 2007 that means they have to find the way to end the Republicans’ lock step support for it because that is the wall between us and the end of the war.
Yesterday was the long version of this, today let’s getting right to the point. The left has no option but to work with the Democrats who oppose the continued occupation of Iraq. They are our only tool. There is no other choice available.
Those in the house and senate who opposed the funding bill need to lead us to do what will work to end the war as quickly as possible. They can’t be coy about it. They can’t consider legislative etiquette unless that is necessary for success. They know that they were put into office to END THE WAR IN IRAQ. In May 2007 that means they have to find the way to end the Republicans’ lock step support for it because that is the wall between us and the end of the war.
The Republicans need to be attacked on this issue and those seats that are at risk earliest, in the places most likely to throw them out of office, are were we need to focus our fire. Those are the Republicans who can be turned, they have to be made answerable for the war of their president and their party. It has to be the constituents in those places who make the attack, national groups run the risk of giving them a campaign dodge which they will welcome. That was the lesson we learned from Connecticut last year.
The temptation is to go into the wider implications about these issues, if you’ve read me you know my weakness for that. But this is the here and now problem. We face a terrible situation of having to stop a war. Over the past fifty years the real ability to prevent a president from starting and sustaining even the most criminal and idiotic war has disappeared. We have had absolute proof that even the power of the purse isn’t in the hands of the congressional leadership any more. The political and media realities of May 2007 have destroyed the balance that made congress a hurdle for unbridled presidential war powers. That is what we have to restore, it involves strengthening the position of the Democratic leadership, not weakening it. Anything that doesn’t do this is helping Bush and his war party and will prolong their war.
Grousing about the fact that the Democratic leadership has to work with the reality they’ve got will only strengthen the Republican war machine. It’s time for the left to stop crying about what it can’t have now and to get what can be gotten. Only after that can we work with a new reality instead of the one we have today.
Ending American involvement with the Iraqi civil war is the most urgent and important issue we face. We don’t have time for make believe in 2008 or, as some deluded fantasists are alreadly dreaming, in 2012. We have to win politically as fast as we can. It’s time for clear thinking and concentration on as much of the reality as we need for success as soon as that can be managed. Wishful thinking and chasing after theoretical rainbows that have proven to not be there are a waste of our dwindling time.
It’s time for the leaders of the anti-war majority to lead us and for us to focus our efforts on the attainable.