Bloodless Coup

Republican War Strategy Walks the Plank

Likely, everyone has seen the comments by Representaive Murtha (D-Integrity) by now. Murtha, a Vietnam veteran and long time member (respected, by the way, by both sides) of the House Armed Services Committee, came out yesterday and gave an emotional call to bring the troops home from Iraq, like, today. (The text of Murtha's statement is here.)

Readers of this blog will likely recognize that immediate withdrawal from Iraq isn't a policy position I can really support. While I find the present set of policies (and policy-makers) to be failures, there are lots of alternatives available for trial before withdrawal (though time is running out both in Iraq and domestically for new initiatives). That being said, the White House official response to Murtha was beyond the pale, arrogant, wrong, and plainly insane:

Congressman Murtha is a respected veteran and politician who has a record of supporting a strong America. So it is baffling that he is endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party. The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists. After seeing his statement, we remain baffled -- nowhere does he explain how retreating from Iraq makes America safer.

Yesterday was the day, officially, that the White House walked the plank on Iraq. Murtha, while a democrat, is about as far from the "extreme left wing" of the Democratic party, and has likely never met Michael Moore (that may or may not be true; irrelevant). Murtha is rated 0% by NARAL, 53% by the Christian Coalition, supports a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, and is generally given a moderate position overall. He's not "Michael Moore" by any, any stretch.

For the White House to characterize his rejection of the present policies as "surrender to the terrorists" is insulting and insane. Morover, if the best response of the entire press/PR department of the White House is to insult Murtha, that speaks very ill of any coherence, stability and calmness behind the scenes.

Six months ago, we could have had a reasoned debate and altered policies to try to achieve something like success in Iraq. That would have required Bush to make concessions, and likely bring aboard some Democrats. He rejected that idea. Now, because the White House won't even brook reasoned criticism, the alternative position that looks to be moving closer and closer to the default is "immediate withdrawl". That's bad (for the US, for Iraq, for stability in the Middle East, for oil prices, and for the world; but that's a much long blog post). However, Bush's complete inability to consider any alternative is leaving all compromise positions withering on the vine.

The "withdrawal" boulder is gathering speed, and the White House statements on Murtha just gave it an extra boost.

Posted by baltar at November 18, 2005 02:01 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Iraq