Taylor Marsh – TaylorMarsh.com – News, Opinion and Weblog on Progressive Politics

Maxine
Waters wants no part of it.

Chris Dodd evidently leads
it. David Brooks
must be a charter member.

These men act as if Iraq is a minor issue. They couldn't be more wrong.

National security beats Democrats every time. Either the DC Democrats cave
and vote for a war because they're afraid of sounding unpatriotic, or they do what
Lieberman has done and lecture us that dissent undermines the commander in chief
by again being afraid to lead on this issue. Neither helps this country or is worthy of our troops.

The war is a huge part of the exodus away from Lieberman, but what lies
at the root of it is the philosophy that got us into Iraq in the first place. That's what must be purged. We all know that Dodd was speaking to John Kerry
and Hillary Clinton, among others, who have said they will not only back the
winner in the August primary, but in the case of Kerry,
is not even backing Lieberman now. Kerry has gained support over the last months
because he's been Al Gored, finding his voice after losing the presidential
election. As for Hillary, after being booed she's had a
quiet awakening that was long overdue. But that said, all along both Kerry
and Clinton complained about Bush and Rumsfeld's handling post war in Iraq,
even before Kerry came out and said he was wrong, while Clinton equivocated
until she was force fed political medicine that is her only hope if she truly has presidential dreams.

Joe Lieberman
stayed silent, mute, except to mimic “stay the course” rhetoric from
the president. A president who has started a new arms race from the very “axis
of evil” he warned years ago, while lighting a match in the Middle East.

John F. Kennedy said a long time ago that if the president deserves criticism
let him have it. He also believed in peace above anything else. “Bear any
burden” was said in the context of a clear and present danger to liberty, which Iraq
was not. Just one example, a speech you might not have read:

… Twenty-six sons of Ireland have died in the Congo; many others have been wounded. I pay tribute to them and to all of you for your commitment and dedication to world order. And their sacrifice reminds us all that we must not falter now. The United Nations must be fully and fairly financed. Its peace- keeping machinery must be strengthened. Its institutions must be developed until some day, and perhaps some distant day, a world of law is achieved. Ireland's influence in the United Nations is far greater than your relative size. You have not hesitated to take the lead on such sensitive issues as the Kashmir dispute. And you sponsored that most vital resolution, adopted by the General Assembly, which opposed the spread of nuclear arms to any nation not now possessing them, urging an international agreement with inspection and controls. And I pledge to you that the United States of America will do all in its power to achieve such an agreement and fulfill your resolution. … President John F. Kennedy

I never knew Jack Kennedy, but I've studied Kennedy my whole life. Joe Lieberman
is no Jack Kennedy.

Sorry, after Lieberman's nonsense during the debate I couldn't resist.

National security is an issue on which Democrats must find a voice. One that doesn't represent the same “vision” as conservatives and one that leads
in the 21st century world of globalized threats from rogue states and loose
nukes and the utter insanity of invading countries that do not pose a clear
and present danger. Scoop Jackson may have long ago been a good model, but in
the 21st century he is not. As for John F. Kennedy, he warned about the nationalistic
ideals of the Middle East in 1951, saying that we must export ideas and not
arms. Kennedy, as historians like Robert Dalek has chronicled, was ready to withdraw from Vietnam, changing course if he had lived. The man could admit a mistake and recalibrate, but he knew the pains of war because he actually fought heroically in one.

But as to Iraq, any Democratic member who doesn't think the Iraq
war is a cause on which to stand separately from George W. Bush, Dick Cheney,
Donald Rumseld and conservatives does not deserve to be a senator representing
the Democratic Party, in my opinion.

It's about getting rid of Democrats who are wrong on the war, wrong on not
criticizing President Bush, and wrong on changing course when soldiers are dying
and America is being made weaker from that stance. These are out of touch politicians, dangerous Democrats.

We cannot save Iraq. Only Iraqis can make that choice, but the article below
outlines the choice the Iraqis are making instead. The Iraq war advocates who maintain their position to this day never understood Iraq in the first place.
Their unwillingness to admit that mistake by saying we're they're now so
we have to stay isn't an answer to what's going on today. It's not a solution and if you're not part of the solution you are simply part of the problem and with Iraq the most pressing issue of the day, you simple do not earn a pass.

Brutality and corruption are rampant in Iraq's police force, with abuses including the rape of female prisoners, the release of terrorism suspects in exchange for bribes, assassinations of police officers and participation in insurgent bombings, according to confidential Iraqi government documents detailing more than 400 police corruption investigations. A recent assessment by State Department police training contractors underscores the investigative documents, concluding that strong paramilitary and insurgent influences within the force and endemic corruption have undermined public confidence in the government. Officers have beaten prisoners to death, been involved in kidnapping rings, sold thousands of stolen and forged Iraqi passports and passed along vital information to insurgents, the Iraqi documents allege. The documents, which cover most of 2005 and part of 2006, were obtained by the Los Angeles Times and authenticated by current and former police officials. The alleged offenses cover dozens of police units and hundreds of officers ranging from beat cops to generals and police chiefs. Officers were punished in some cases, but the vast majority of offenses are either under investigation or were dropped because of a lack of evidence or witness testimony. (snip) After the discovery in November of a secret Interior Ministry detention facility in Baghdad operated by police intelligence officials affiliated with a Shiite Muslim militia, U.S. officials declared 2006 “the year of the police.” They vowed a renewed effort to expand and professionalize Iraq's civilian officer corps. President Bush has said that the training of a competent Iraqi police force is linked to the timing of an eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops and a key element in the war in Iraq. But U.S. officials say the renegade force in the ministry's intelligence service that ran the bunker in Baghdad's Jadiriyah neighborhood continues to operate out of the Interior Ministry building's seventh floor. A senior U.S. military official in Iraq, who was interviewed last month on condition of anonymity, confirmed that one of the leaders of the renegade group, Mahmoud Waeli, is the “minister of intelligence for the Badr Corps” Shiite militia and a main recruiter of paramilitary elements for interior police forces. (snip) Female detainees are often subject to sexual assault. In August, the commander of a detention center in the Karkh neighborhood of the capital raped a woman who was an alleged insurgent. Also in August, two lieutenants tortured and raped two other detained women. The removal of two provincial police chiefs are among the strongest reprimands detailed in the documents. U.S. officials say they have known about Interior Ministry abuses for years but have done little to thwart them, choosing instead to push Iraqi leaders to solve their own problems. Brutality, corruption pervade Iraqi police force (h/t TPM) Documents allege officers involved in aiding insurgents and fatal beatings