Such a crock!
"WASHINGTON - The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman on Sunday dismissed criticism that a resolution opposing a troop buildup in Iraq would embolden the enemy and estimated perhaps only 20 senators believe President Bush "is headed in the right direction."
"It's not the American people or the U.S. Congress who are emboldening the enemy," said Democratic Sen. Joe Biden, a White House hopeful in 2008. "It's the failed policy of this president — going to war without a strategy, going to war prematurely."[..]
This whole emboldening-the-terrorists thing is such a crock .. as if insurgents are sitting home watching senators debate and war protestors march on CNN so they can get "emboldened" enough to rig a car bomb. Believe me, they're going to do that no matter what, even whether we're there or not .. because they're fighting each other as fiercely as they're fighting us.
Seems to me that the thing insurgents hate is peace, not war. Peace talks, cease-fires, diplomatic solutions. etc. This forces them to compromise and give up ground. They would rather have more war because it destabilizes society .. average citizens become radicalized, which in turn means more recruits for the insurgents and the death squads.
Anyway, 21,000 troops are not going to make that big a difference, even in Baghdad. It would take several HUNDRED thousand more to actually "win" that war, for us to be in control.
And when we do finally leave, no matter what we do, no matter if it's in 6 mos. or 6 years, their Civil war will STILL blow up again. Remember, their rivalries and tribal hatreds go back 1500 years. That's why, as bloody as it's going to be, we need to let them settle it themselves. Like some Democrats are saying, just withdraw to guard the borders .. to keep foreigners out .. and let the Iraqis have at it.
Or, how about this? -- we fix the problems with US port security and borders security with all the money we'd be saving if we withdrew, with all the troops we'd be bringing home. That way we could really get serious about TRUE Homeland Security .. not this BS that Bush and Cheney are trying to feed us.
Another thing that really gets my goat -- Cheney on CNN telling Wolf Blitzer that America "doesn't have the stomach for the fight" .. when he was a five-deferments coward himself during Vietnam.
75% of the American people are against this war and feel that we've already lost it. The Vietnam War wasn't lost on the battlefield, it was lost first in the public and then in Congress, who cut off funding.
Seems the Iraq war is following the same pattern .. though on a much quicker timeline and with much fewer casualties.
And don't forget -- the North Vietnamese resolve was never shaken.
