Congress’ War of Words Over Iraq

What happened

Three years after the invasion of Iraq, Congress held its most dramatic and bitter debate yet over the future of the war. Capitalizing on a burst of good news, including the death of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, House Republicans last week introduced a nonbinding resolution vowing to 'œcomplete the mission' in Iraq and opposing any 'œarbitrary date for withdrawal.' After 11 hours of speeches from more than 140 lawmakers, the resolution passed 256'“153. 'œWe in this Congress must show the same steely resolve as those men and women on United Flight 93,' said Speaker Dennis Hastert. In opposing the resolution, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said that the Iraqis had become dependent on an open-ended 'œU.S. security blanket,' and needed to be prodded into taking responsibility for security. 'œOnly the Iraqis can make a nation out of Iraq,'' Levin said.

The debate continued in the Senate this week, as Democrats introduced two competing resolutions to end the war. Party leaders backed a proposal that urges President Bush to begin 'œa phased redeployment' of troops by the end of the year, but does not say when the withdrawal would be completed. The second resolution—offered by John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, and Russell Feingold—called for a full withdrawal of most troops by July 2007.

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The American military death toll in Iraq rose to 2,500 last week. Two U.S. soldiers were kidnapped during an insurgent attack in Baghdad, prompting a massive search by 8,000 troops. The missing soldiers were found dead two days later, and officials said their bodies—which had to be identified through DNA—showed evidence of 'œbarbaric'' torture and desecration.

What the editorials said

Congress was overdue for a serious debate on Iraq, said USA Today. Unfortunately, this wasn't it. Instead of a wide-ranging discussion about how to define success, whether our $320 billion is being well spent, and what we can do to win international support, both parties resorted to 'œcheap political stunts' that turned our troops 'œinto political pawns.' Our troops must stay as long as 'œthere is a reasonable chance' that the insurgency can be suppressed and Iraq can be knit into a functioning democracy. They can't, however, be asked to keep fighting 'œin a hopeless battle.'

Republicans should learn some lessons from their president, said the Los Angeles Times. Lately, Bush has acknowledged that American troops need to come home as soon as possible, even as he resists setting a deadline. That effort at conciliation is a far cry from the 'œtriumphalist and partisan' tone on display in Congress. GOP legislators had better temper their rhetoric about 'œdefeatist' Democrats. 'œOtherwise, they might be welcoming more of them to Congress after the election.''

What the columnists said

The main Democratic resolution is utterly unnecessary, since Bush 'œhas said that he wants to pull out U.S. troops as fast as he can,' said Debra J. Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle. Demanding a 'œphased withdrawal' accomplishes nothing—except to undermine our troops, and encourage an enemy that 'œbelieves America has no political backbone.'

The only debate we should be having, said Frederick W. Kagan in The Weekly Standard, is how many more troops to send to Iraq. Shoring up the government, rebuilding infrastructure, and training Iraqi police may make us feel better, but it does nothing to weaken the insurgency. Only clearing and holding cities with overwhelming force will accomplish that. When we do that, 'œwe know we've won, the Iraqi people know we've won, and the insurgents know we've won.'

Military victory looks less likely with every passing day, said Nicholas von Hoffman in The Nation. Many of our troops are on their third tour of duty, exhausted and demoralized, and as the Haditha massacre demonstrated, our forces are 'œin danger of creeping disintegration.' Savage militias and terrorists control most of the country. U.S.-sponsored construction projects have been shut down. Given another year of this, and the only exit strategy we'll be debating will be how to 'œextract our people with a minimum of loss.'

What next?

Los Angeles Times