Heartsick

I felt ill when I heard the Senate Majority Leader say repeatedly and enthusiastically that "the war is lost." Senator Reid has ignored the Bush administration's new general (approved of unanimously by this same Senate) and the new strategy that is only three-fifths deployed yet already showing positive signs. The Democrats don't care, nostalgic for Vietnam, they're pining away for defeat.

I am flustered at how disingenuous the Democrats are about the strategy in Iraq. The Democrats supported the war until public opinion turned – something that says more about our media and culture than the actual war. The Democrats demanded a surge of troops and change in strategy until it actually happened. Now, to make political hay, they've flip-flopped and prematurely declared defeat.

I was horrified that the Senate approved a bill today, filled with pork for things unrelated to the war that sets a date for withdrawal regardless of whether things are improving on the ground. Guaranteed to be vetoed, it plays games with the lives of our soldiers and the people of Iraq. This bill insists on and attempts to guarantee defeat.

I had always thought of myself as someone who could vote for either party, based on the issue of the day. But after this, I'd be ashamed to vote for short-sighted defeatists, political opportunists that would play games with our troops' lives and throw away the lives of Iraqis.

If Iraq collapses, which it will without our support, the regimes of Iran and Syria will be strengthened. The fundamentalists across the Middle East will be emboldened. It will come back to haunt us.

On CNN, interviewer Dana Bash asked, "Gen.Petraeus is coming to the Hill to report on and make it clear to you that there is progress going on in Iraq and that the surge is working. Will you believe him if he says that?"

Senator Reid, who once championed the advice of generals when it benefited him, answered, "No, I don’t believe him because its not happening."

How sickening.