Reply #33: See this thread/piece by Joe Klein...Why Washington is Playing with Fire..

[Gloria]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x178817


SNIP

Indeed, the most effective Democratic criticism of the
> President's "victory" offensive came from two West Point graduates
> who had opposed the war, Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island and
> General Wesley Clark, and both took Bush to task for the skimpiness
> of the Iraq effort. Clark wrote a New York Times Op-Ed piece offering
> a thoughtful list of suggestions for a more successful prosecution of
> the war that he had opposed, including the deployment of more troops
> (which he would transfer from other regions). Reed pointed out that
> the President, despite his talk of limited success in the
> reconstruction of the cities of Najaf and Mosul, "didn't tell the
> American people how we're going to replicate that success in other
> parts of Iraq ... how many more teams of Americans, both military and
> civilian, need to go into these communities (and) what it will cost
> us." Most important was Reed's tone—quiet, humble, dispassionate,
> substantive.
>
> Such sobriety seems beyond the reach of most Democrats. They make
> fools of themselves even when they speak the truth. The party
> chairman, Howard Dean, was not inaccurate when he said, "The idea
> that we are going to win this war ... is just plain wrong." If Dean
> had added the word militarily, most generals would agree with him.
> The trouble is, Dean—as always—seemed downright gleeful about the bad
> news. He seemed to be rooting for defeat. More subtle but no less
> feckless is the curious case of John Kerry, who has been calling for
> the withdrawal of 20,000 American troops as soon as the Iraqi
> elections are completed on Dec. 15. He has said this knowing full
> well that the Pentagon is planning to reduce the force by 20,000
> after Dec. 15 as part of its normal troop-rotation schedule. One
> hopes he won't be so crass as to take credit for the drawdown when it
> occurs. But then Kerry—and many other Democrats—have been calling for
> a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops, based on progress in Iraq, as if
> that were some sort of bold and different idea. It isn't. It is
> precisely what the President has said he will do.
>
> And now the Republicans are preparing to retaliate by running a
> vomitous television ad portraying Dean, Kerry and others as "retreat
> and defeat" Democrats, waving the white flag of surrender. In this
> holiday season, out of respect for the dead and wounded, and the
> enormity of the tragedy, wouldn't it be nice if all those rabid
> partisans—on both sides—just gave it a rest for a while?
>
>
> www.time.com/time/columnist/klein/article/0,9565,1139778,00.html