Dems Iraq Plan: "Monty Python Does the governance of Iraq"

Tweet Helena Cobban ridicules the Dems Iraq strategy but then says later in her column she will help them get elected:

"On that same op-ed page, veteran WaPo political commentator David Broder writes about a conference call that Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan and Jack Reed of Rhode Island, both longtime members of the Armed Services Committee, held recently with a number of reporters.

"He wrote:

"Reed, who has made many trips to Iraq and returned just weeks ago from his most recent visit, described the "very, very difficult situation" he found there. "We have to begin to work toward redeployment without setting a timetable," he said. "We have to start laying out some red lines for the Iraqis . . . give them some clear goals we want them to achieve." They need to set plans for disarming militias, conducting elections at the provincial level and spending some of the funds being hoarded in Baghdad on better services for the people, he said.

"Implicit in their comments is a belief, based on their firsthand observations, that the current rulers in Baghdad have a different agenda for themselves than the Bush administration's bland assurances suggest. As Levin put it, "Our only leverage for change is to force the politicians in Iraq to realize we're not there as their security blanket. When they recognize that reality, they're more likely to make the necessary compromises on sharing of oil revenues and sharing power. The prospect of losing us as their personal security blanket will focus their minds."This is extremely close to where the administration's current policy is-- if not identical with it. Today's news pages are all full of reports that the Bushites have decided to establish "benchmarks" and whatever for the Maliki government to live up to in Iraq... This is nearly all, at this stage of how bad things are in Iraq, meaningless posturing before the US voters. (And quite likely to backfire badly with Maliki and others who might consider this as a quite unwarranted form of US bullying, not to mention unwarranted intervention in Iraq's internal affairs...)

"Also, at one level, it's a hilariously misdirected "threat". "Look here, Maliki, you better do as we tell you, or otherwise we'll-- well, we'll do just exactly what you, your party, and the vast majority of Iraqis want us to do."

"Monty Python does the governance of Iraq.

"But Broder continues with the crux of why these two senior Democratic good ol' boys are so disappointing:

"When the senators were asked if a Democratic majority in the House or Senate would force the issue in Iraq by threatening to cut off funds for the war, they quickly ruled out any such action. Levin said that a simple resolution recommending to the president that he set a date to begin redeployment might do the trick.Cutting off the funding for the war in Vietnam was, of course, the only way that Congress was able, back in the day, to end the militaristic madness there. And these guys want to "quickly rule out any such action" even before they've even come anywhere near any taste of real Congressional power?

"Almost beyond belief.

Found on Cursor.org