Sen. Harry Reid Is Right About Iraq War
— -- Last week Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., caused a ruckus in Washington by saying that there is no military solution to the Iraq War. That it's over and it's time to get out.
"I believe myself that the secretary of state, the secretary of defense -- and you have to make your own decision as to what the president knows -- that this war is lost, and that the surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday," Reid said.
Republicans were quick to pounce, calling the Democratic leader unpatriotic and unsupportive of our troops, 3,300 of whom have died fighting this debacle.
What Reid said is 100 percent true, and he is not alone. For example, conservative columnist William F. Buckley is also on record saying that the war "has failed." It's no secret that Iraq has been torn apart and gutted as a result of the Unites States' March 2003 invasion. The country is mired in civil war, and the violence worsens with each passing day. Let's face it, Bush is not sending in an additional 20,000 troops because things are going well. Our soldiers are getting killed daily, the troops are forced to do longer tours of duty and our National Guardsmen are being sent back into battle before they even have a chance to unpack here at home. It's a disgrace.
Bush and his war-mongering cronies took it upon themselves to invade a sovereign nation under the guise of (a) retaliating against Sept. 11; (b) protecting America and Britain from WMD "mushroom clouds;" and then (c) building a stable democracy in the Middle East. As we now all know, there were no WMD in Iraq, there was no connection to bin Laden and al Qaeda and true, sustainable democracy is but a fantasy. Failure, failure, failure. And the insurgents have been empowered and emboldened by this failure, not weakened. And Bush's desperate "troop surge" is not going to make one bit of difference in changing Iraq's military and political landscape.
The Republicans don't like Reid and his assessment of the war. But too bad. This is not Reid's mess. This military disaster belongs 100 percent to Bush and the Republican party. This is their war. If they don't like it being called a failure, or that it is "lost," then they should demonstrate its successes and spare us the incessant partisan rhetoric. Stop regurgitating all this BS about progress and success and show it to us.
Andy Ostroy is editor and publisher of The Ostroy Report, a New York-based blog that takes on Bush, the Republican Party and the conservative media.
Bush and the Republicans, in their supreme arrogance, are choosing to ignore the will of the electorate, choosing to forget that a majority of Americans voted for a change in leadership last November and that the administration's failed Iraq policy was the primary reason for this changing of the guard. Reid is doing what the American people asked him to do: exercising greater congressional oversight than when the GOP foxes were the ones guarding the henhouse. Bush and his Iraq War mob don't get to run amok in Iraq, causing tens of thousands of deaths, and then expect a free pass here at home on the PR front.
What's worse, saying those who are against the Bushies' failed Iraq War are therefore against the troops, is a shameful, despicable political calculation. Sorry George, Reid and the Democrats just don't believe that the way to support the troops is to send more of them to die in an unjust, miserable failure of a war that you and you alone created. Kudos to Reid for having the courage to stand up and say what needs to be said.
Andy Ostroy is editor and publisher of The Ostroy Report, a New York-based blog that takes on Bush, the Republican Party and the conservative media.