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

I’ll see your letter and raise
you some legislation. That ought to get the job done.

Greg Sargent has Clinton’s full letter posted. Below is my favorite snippet. As for the first words,
“I am in receipt of a letter” from your flunky, well, to say Edelman
“did not address the issues raised” in Clinton’s original letter is
an understatement. The senator is being diplomatic, though she certainly lets
Gates know that she’s fully aware that he farmed his job out to Edelman, who
then took it upon himself to condescend to Senator Clinton, who, besides her job on oversight, also just happens
to be leading in the polls for the Democratic nomination for president. I’m
sure that had nothing to do with it.

I am in receipt of a letter from Eric Edelman, the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy who wrote that he was responding on your behalf. Under Secretary Edelman’s response did not address the issues raised in my letter and instead made spurious arguments to avoid addressing contingency planning for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. As I noted in my original letter, “the seeds of many problems that continue to plague our troops and mission in Iraq were planted in the failure to adequately plan for the conflict and properly equip our men and women in uniform. Congress must be sure that we are prepared to withdraw our forces without any unnecessary danger.” Rather than offer to brief the congressional oversight committees on this critical issue, Under Secretary Edelman – writing on your behalf – instead claims that congressional oversight emboldens our enemies. Under Secretary Edelman has his priorities backward. Open and honest debate and congressional oversight strengthens our nation and supports our military. His suggestion to the contrary is outrageous and dangerous. Indeed, you acknowledged the importance of Congress in our Iraq policy at a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee in March, when you stated, “I believe that the debate here on the Hill and the issues that have been raised have been helpful in bringing pressure to bear on the Maliki government and on the Iraqis in knowing that there is a very real limit to American patience in this entire enterprise.” Redeploying out of Iraq will be difficult and requires careful planning. I continue to call on the Bush Administration to immediately provide a redeployment strategy that will keep our brave men and women safe as they leave Iraq – instead of adhering to a political strategy to attack those who rightfully question their competence and preparedness after years of mistakes and misjudgments. … ..

Politico.com calls the Edelman letter today “a gift” in a post entitled
“Fun
with the Pentagon.” Though I understand his take, with the Clinton
team responding admirably, there is danger for the Democrats in thinking Edelman
is doing us a favor by ignoring real requests for what will happen when it’s
time to redeploy our troops out of Iraq.

To put it mildly, we cannot assume that the Pentagon will automatically be
prepared, so Clinton’s questions are not only important but critical. To say
the Pentagon response is “outrageous and dangerous,” as Clinton’s
Senate spokesperson Philippe Reines did, is right on. But Edelman’s flippant suggestion also borders on negligence, not to mention parrots wingnut talking points in order to silence a United States senator, who just happens to be running for president.

The other point may have to come from me, as a woman who writes on national
security and military issues, so here it is. To think Clinton, if nominated,
won’t be met by misogynistic arrogance by some other Bush flunky in the Pentagon is naive in the
extreme. Edelman publicly illustrated that’s exactly how Team Bush will behave, even to a woman with the credentials and the oversight duty, which sends a powerful
signal of what could come after January 2009 if Clinton becomes the
first female commander in chief in U.S. history. We are witnessing a most important
drawing of power lines, with more to come. The egregious behavior by Gates to
farm out his job to someone like Edelman is also important. The good news is that Clinton gave as good as she got.

The new legislation offered up by Clinton and Kerry sends a powerful message: You report to us, pal. Make sure you do just that.

“[The legislation will] require a report and briefing from the Pentagon on contingency planning. This is in direct response to the unacceptable response I’ve received. … If we don’t get a response from the Pentagon, we have no choice but to require the legislation to get the response. … We need to make sure we are smarter getting out of Iraq than we were getting into Iraq.” – Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton