Webloggin » Senate Hearings Today - Kerry Cut and Run Amendment, Levin Non-Binding Sense of Senate

UPDATE II: No Surprise: Senate Rejects Both the Kerry and Levin Amendments. Captains Quarters has an article on the vote.

I listened to the Senate Hearings yesterday on the Democrat plans to pull out of Iraq and it should be noted that a new theme emerged from the Senate floor.

Both Senator Clinton and Senator Hagel mentioned that the Iraq war has lasted longer than our presence in the Korean War. I have no doubt that we will hear this new theme repeated often as the detractors of the war increase their rhetoric in an effort to paint the war effort as negatively as possible.

A couple of comparisons they fail to mention are apt to mention here as a reminder of how context makes all the difference when making these comparisons.

The United States lost 54,000 souls in the Korean War. This is a far sight less than the number lost in Iraq. In total more than 2 million people died in Korea; many of them civilians.
8,142 U.S. Soldiers were listed as missing in action during the war. This is more than three times the number killed in Iraq.
The armistice negations in Korea lasted two years which is nearly as long as we have been in Iraq. Kerry and Feingold want to pull out in less time.

The Democrats have been stinging from their transparent attempts to paint the war as a replay of Vietnam while simultaneously trying to distance themselves from the cut and run images of that very same war. Hence Korea is the next convenient comparison.

But this war is no Korea just as it is no Vietnam. Try as they might, the only comparison Democrats can make to wars past that holds water is that they have opposed the administration leading the effort in every way conceivable; just as in Vietnam.

The Democrats are spinning desperately to paint themselves as patriotic supporters of the troops. Yet no spin can remove the fact that many of these same Democrats convicted the Haditha Marines in the press without so much as a trial; cold blooded killers was the characterization if I recall. No spin can remove the echo of Durbin’s Gulag comparisons or Murtha’s cover up allegations.

Now they want to cut and run. The Democrats have taken to the Senate floor as if there is no plan by the Bush administration; but that is a lie.

Feingold is saying that the US is “facilitating Al Qaeda”. “It is Time to Reverse Course”. But not cut and run. Ironically facilitating al Qaeda is exactly what would happen if Kerry and Feingold got their way.

Many Senators, including Clinton and Kerry have made references to this Wahsington Post article by Iraq National Security Advisor Mowaffak al-Rubaie. What they fail to mention is that Mt. al-Rubaie speaks of the current plan that is being formed with the United States in that article. Kerry also fails to mention that Mr. al-Rubaie’s plan calls for U.S. troops to last in Iraq 6 months later than the deadline that Kerry and Feingold propose.

Good for Senator Joe Lieberman, despite the attacks from the Daily Kos and Ned Lamont he is opposing both the Kerry/Feingold and the Levin proposals. Senator Lieberman is a small ray of light in the party that knows nothing but obstruction, doom and gloom.

Others Covering This Story
Michelle Malkin : THE SIDESHOW BOB DEMOCRATS

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