This smacks of childishness. And that is not to say the the Republicans aren’t equally capable of such childish behaviour. Only that the Dems were caught at it this time.
Of particular interest to me is the line of reasoning or lack thereof. It is quite possible that the reporter intends to present the Dems in bad light. However, from this article it seems that the line of reasoning goes Bush got approval for this war under false pretenses and therefore we should pull the US military out of Iraq immediately. One does not follow the other. If President Bush knowingly deceived Congress and the American public in order to get approval to invade Iraq, that should be brought to light and dealt with appropriately. First it needs to be proven that President Bush knowingly deceived.
I said before the invasion that no WMD would be found. I think the line of reasoning used by the White House was misguided at best. As I said in this blog, there were far more logical and sound reasons for invading Iraq. Reasons that would have been far more likely to rally International support for the action. At some point it should be determined what President Bush knew and whether he or his staff intentionally manipulated information to support their intended action. If it is found that intentional manipulation did occur, it should be dealt with appropriately. However, all of this is water under the bridge.
Coalition Forces have invaded Iraq and toppled the existing government. Regardless of their reason for doing so it is now the responsibility of the Coalition to restore a government to Iraq. To simply withdraw all military forces from Iraq and leave them to sort things out for themselves is irresponsible to say the least. Even if it is proven that President Bush is the consummate liar and successfully deceived everyone in the course of invading Iraq, that still leaves the United States with the responsibility of caring for Iraq and its people until some form of government can be restored. In fact, I would even argue that if President Bush is proven the deceiver that the Dems believe him to be, our responsibility is even greater.
I do not like the reasoning that the Bush administration used to get the United States into this war. I think it was misguided and not well thought out. I think there were far better lines of logic to justify the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. However, I do think that invasion and forcible regime change was inescapable. I wished that President Bush had been a little more willing to take the time to build a more complete International consensus before invading Iraq. I do not think this was required but I think it should have been done. President Bush seemed very impatient. Maybe there were reasons for this. However, in the end, regardless of what I think about whether and how we go into Iraq, we now have to look at the present situation and the road ahead. To leave Iraq before its government is restored and its own security forces are ready and the country is capable of finishing the rebuilding of its infrastructure would be criminal.
Aloha