In yet another sign that a seismic shift in Congressional power is needed in November, the House of Representatives voted 256-153 today to rejected a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. The Republican-controlled House passed a resolution,
H. RES. 861, saying that "… it is not in the national security interest of the United States to set an arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq" and "…the United States is committed to the completion of the mission to create a sovereign, free, secure, and united Iraq."
Of course, the Bush administration still has to contend with the problem that they've set no metric for how we will
know when we've completed the mission. There's also that one, other little detail -- the American people were never told to begin with that the goal of the war was to "…create a sovereign, free, secure, and united Iraq."
“2,500 troops killed, 18,000 wounded more than half of them permanently, the strain our military readiness and eroding our reputation in the world. Stay the course – I don’t think so. It’s time to face the facts," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
on the House floor this morning. “The war in Iraq has been a mistake – a grotesque mistake. It must be our resolve to end the war as soon as possible and to resolve to not make similar mistakes in the future. We owe it to the American people and we owe it to the young men and women that we send in to fight the fight."
Meanwhile, the tin-eared GOP, apparently not understanding that the majority of Americans no longer support this war, offered more of the same: Stay the same bloody, mindless course.
"Retreat is not an option in Iraq," said House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) "Achieving victory is our only option ... We have no choice but to confront these terrorists, win the war on terror and spread freedom and democracy around the world."
What doesn't bode well for Boehner and his party this fall is that the majority of Americans don’t agree with that nonsense.
The most recent
Gallup poll on Iraq, taken June 9-11, shows that, even with the benefit of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death last week, 6 in 10 Americans say that the United States' image in the world is "worse off," because of the Iraq war. When asked about the impact of the war on Americans themselves, 42 percent said that we are worse off, while 31 percent said "the same" and a surprising 26 percent think we are doing better.
These results have been supported by every other major poll done in 2006, which naturally begs the question: Who are the Republicans in Congress representing?
While the GOP continues to make speeches implying that people against the Iraq war are out of touch or, even worse, unpatriotic and treasonous, it is clear that Americans need to go to the polls on November 7 and clear Capitol Hill of those who are
truly out of the mainstream.
Pelosi makes the argument that, in addition to avoiding more needless deaths in Iraq, a drastic leadership change is necessary for our national security.
“The Bush Iraq policy has diverted resources and attention from what should be the focus of our effort against terrorism in places like Afghanistan," said Pelosi. "The lack of stability and deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan is a casualty of the war in Iraq. The war has not made our country safer, it has not made our military stronger, it has caused great damage to our reputation in the world, and it has hindered the fight against terrorism."
You can reach Bob Geiger at [email protected] and read more from him at Democrats.com.