The Trouble with Karl Levin
21 June 2007 9:08 am by Taylor Marsh
Levin
writes an editorial comparing his dilemma on Iraq with Lincoln. Excuse me, but
have heads suddenly expanded in Washington to the size of a favorite summer
fruit? That would be enough of an insult, but it continued. When a Democrat
parrots wing-nut talking points you know we’re never going to get the job done.
I voted against going to war in Iraq; I have consistently challenged the
administration’s conduct of the war; and I have long fought to change our
policy there. But I cannot vote to stop funding the troops while they are
in harm’s way, conducting dangerous missions such as those recently begun
north of Baghdad. I agree with Lincoln, who decided “that the Administration
had done wrong in getting us into the war, but that the Officers and soldiers
who went to the field must be supplied and sustained at all events.”
As long as our nation’s policies put them there, our troops should hear an
unequivocal message from Congress that we support them.
All this support is not turning the U.S. military in Iraq into less of a target. We’ve lost
14
soldiers in two days. More money to fund the escalation isn’t what they
need.
But Levin’s argument is insulting in the extreme because it once again offers
up the canard that ending the war means we will not support the troops as we
draw down. It is the argument the Hannitys and Bill O’Reillys are making. It’s
not what any Democrat with any sense of honor to his own should ever offer.
No soldier will be put in any more jeopardy than they are today by the fact we
start redeploying. If we have to explain this to someone like Karl Levin, well,
you’ve got to wonder if all that auto exhaust he’s breathing from blowing smoke
up Detroit’s big auto makers’ pipes has finally gotten to him.
Feingold responds.
“I’m pleased that Senator Levin and Senator Jack Reed have finally come
to the conclusion that a timetable for redeployment with a hard deadline is
what we need to safely redeploy our troops from Iraq,” Feingold said.
“But I’m disappointed that Senator Levin chose to announce his shift
by disingenuously suggesting that the Feingold-Reid plan would somehow cut
funding for troops in harm’s way. Senator Levin knows full well that
the plan I introduced with Majority Leader Harry Reid, and which was supported
by a majority of Senate Democrats, would end funding for the war in Iraq only
after our brave troops have been safely redeployed out of Iraq. It
is time for Senator Levin and Senator Jack Reed to drop their opposition to
the Feingold-Reid plan to safely redeploy our troops by March 31, 2008, and
then end funding for the mistake in Iraq.”
