President Bush is still fighting to win the war in Iraq:
President Bush threatened to veto legislation setting a date for a troop withdrawal from Iraq on Tuesday despite growing bipartisan calls in Congress for an end to U.S. participation in the war and sharp criticism of the Iraqi government.
We are winning this war and the president must hold fast in the face of those who want to lose the war. The fact that members of both parties are now growing disturbingly comfortable with the idea of defeat should not be a matter of pride.
One fights a war with the Congress we have and not the Congress I wish we had.
UPDATE: Tony Blankley doesn't think much of our greatest debilitated body:
I haven't seen such uncritical thinking since I hid under my bed sheets to get away from the monsters back when I was 3 years old.
Whether they are talking about war weariness, grief over casualties, fear of their upcoming elections, disappointment with the current Iraqi government or general irritation with the incumbent president: What in the world do such misgivings of U.S. senators have to do with whether we should continue to advance our vital national security interests?
Yep.
UPDATE: Ralph Peters notes that the goons will be unleashed and there will be mass bloodshed in Iraq if Congress forces us to leave Iraq too soon.
Yep again. A Congresscritter cried. People died.
The institution of Congress is great, indeed. But a growing number of those institutionalized within its walls aren't even adequate.
UPDATE: A call for a spine in defense of our nation (tip to Instapundit):
Like Lincoln, who faced politicians in both parties demanding peace even at the price of permanently splitting the Union, President Bush now must contend with Democrats and Republicans who for whatever reason lack the will to remain firm in Iraq. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, for example, unilaterally announced that the “war is lost” before most of the additional troops involved in the surge Bush authorized earlier this year had even arrived in Iraq.
Since then, more U.S. troops on the ground inevitably has meant more casualties, but only the willfully blind cannot see that the surge is making a huge and positive difference in our favor. D-Day also meant more casualties, but in the end it ensured freedom. That is why we cannot be swayed now from the task before us in Iraq.
We can be swayed from the task. Congress demonstrates that on a daily basis these days. But we must not be swayed.
Victory, people. Try it. You'll like it.
UPDATE: Now I'm getting depressed:
The meeting that lawmakers had with national security adviser Stephen Hadley came as GOP Sens. Olympia Snowe and Chuck Hagel announced they would back Democratic legislation ordering combat to end next spring.
Blast them and their reelection calculations. Their hubris is stunning. They will order the end of combat? Just who will enforce that order on al Qaeda, the Sunni Arabs who still fight, and the Iranian-backed Shia death squads? Congress can compel us to stop fighting--not stop the fighting.
In the end, their votes for defeat will not save their seats. Only victory will preserve their precious seats for six more years. But they have succumbed to panic and little will keep them from seeking the false safety of the rear.
The President needs to tell these Congresscritters to stay the Hell out of the way while responsible adults get on with the job of winning the war they declared.
