The President spoke eloquently of seeking victory in Iraq. That is all I care about. All the other bullet points are mere details to be haggled over in committee rooms. They matter little in the big picture. The war is what matters.
So what does the loyal opposition say?
"The president took us into this war recklessly," the Democrats' chosen messenger, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, said in his prepared response to Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday evening. "We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable — and predicted — disarray that has followed."
Recklessly? The UN route verified that Saddam had not obeyed prior UN resolutions to verify his destruction of WMD. Congressional debate led to a declaration of war based on widely held intelligence from around the world that Saddam had WMD. The debate in Congress was lengthy and a Republican-held House and Democratic-held Senate in 2002 voted overwhelmingly on numerous grounds to go to war and depose Saddam's sick regime.
If the disarray that followed our victory in April 2003 was predicted, why did the loyal opposition vote for war? The truth of that vote is that many lacked the courage to vote their true feelings. They assumed an easy war and did not wish to be on record as being opposed to ending a tyrant's rule. For these people I have nothing but contempt.
And for those who did support the war, but who now bail because it does not follow their notions of a perfect war, grow up. Enemies fight back. So we must kill more of them to win.
The truth is that war is never certain in its course or outcome. Webb has forgotten that war is not a story to be pitched to a publisher and written according to an outline. Yet once begun it must be fought until won.
Our Congress voted to go to war. This should have meant that we all resolved to wage war until victory.
But many in Congress now recant their vote. Are our representatives in Congress really telling us that they find defeat acceptable? And so now our nation's military in Iraq is held hostage to the predictable--and predicted--second thoughts that have led too many in Congress to quail at what real war is and not what they thought war was after two antiseptic (for us) bombing wars in the Balkans.
Yes, it is difficult. Yet not as costly as past wars. And we fight it well and not incompetently as some recklessly and ignorantly charge. Stop all the nitpicking and wringing of hands over the course of this war. We are winning this war in Iraq.
And we must win it. The cost of failure is too high.
UPDATE: A small band in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has spoken:
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a nonbinding measure saying President Bush's plan to increase troops in Iraq is "not in the national interest of the United States."
I wouldn't trust this bunch to recognize our national interest if it flew into our tallest building and brought it crashing to the ground, killing thousands.
