Convenient Distraction?

Will raw political considerations lead the new Congress to support staying in Iraq to let our troops win the war?

I do worry that our troops overseas will see our elections as not a rejection of the Republicans or the President, but as a rejection of our commitment to win in Iraq.

Nobody wants to die for a lost cause, and if our troops see the Democrats as just wanting to get out and who cares what happens in Iraq, will the troops react to this? Will their morale plummet? Will troops no longer re-enlist? Will our troops stop fighting to win? Will their discipline falter?

I hope the Democratic leadership in Congress make it clear that they want victory in Iraq. They may have different ideas about how to win, but they should loudly proclaim that winning is their goal.

And really, fighting in Iraq might be in the Democrats' best interest. Seriously. Consider that by having both houses of Congress, the Democrats can't simply obstruct the President and a Republican-controlled Senate over Iraq. If the Democrats only held the House they could hold hearings to their hearts' content but still not be responsible for the war. They could please their base with subpoenas and avoid responsibility for choosing paths in Iraq by shrugging that the Senate still supports "the President's" war. Win-win for the Democratic Party.

In addition, after claiming that Iraq "distracts" us from dealing with Iran and North Korea, if the Democrats succeed in getting our troops out of Iraq fast, might not the Democrats be under pressure to do something with our freed up ground forces in regard to Iran and North Korea? They have claimed we are too tied down to deal with these two countries.

I've long said that the Left always favors the past war or the potential future war--never the war we are in. Now the Left says Afghanistan is the good war. Then, the war was unnecessary and doomed to failure. Then, Desert Storm was a mistake and we should be ashamed that allies paid us to fight. Now, Desert Storm was a wonderful UN-approved war with a real coalition and look how little it cost us! Then, Vietnam was a giant ongoing war crime. Now, well we all remember the band of brothers reporting for duty. i seem to recall lots of flags.

And of course, now Iraq distracts us from sending appropriate force to Afghanistan and keeps us from properly threatening Iran and North Korea--the real threats.

Really, from a political point of view, fighting in Iraq might be too convenient a "distraction" for the new leadership in Congress that will save them from putting their proclaimed convictions about being willing to fight the "right" war into practice.

Staying in Iraq to fight just might be a common position for both sides--for different reasons.

So let's see those hand puppets and chants: "Hell no, we won't go!"