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Allah pointed me to video this morning of American troops who found a kidnapped Iraqi man on a routine Baghdad search, and then informed his family of his rescue. The last 30 or so seconds of the video are beautiful. That kind of elation is universal, and it's nice to see troops and Iraqis sharing in it. Allah also reminds me of UPI's Pamela Hess' moving comments on Iraq, after her visit there, in which she expresses dismay at the fact that domestic politics manage to so obscure the fact that coalition troops are doing serious, humanitarian protection in Iraq. And, that without them, there would be many more victims. I'm pretty sure I've Hess' interview before, but even so, it's worth watching a few times, especially now that Harry Reid says Iraq and its people aren't worth "one more drop of American blood." Of course, despite saying that, he won't actually use the power of the purse to cut off funding. Instead, he'll walk the cowardly line, approving funding for another year while doing his loudest and best to undermine public support for the effort.
Reid (Nev.) announced that he had teamed up with Sen. Russell Feingold(Wis.), one of the Democrats' strongest war critics, on legislation toset a deadline of March 31, 2008, for completing the withdrawal ofcombat forces and ending most military spending in Iraq... Reid had previously opposed setting a firm end date for the war, astance he has backed away from in recent months as others in his partymoved to increase pressure on Bush. He officially converted aftervisiting wounded soldiers last week at Walter Reed Army Medical Center... "If the President vetoes the supplemental appropriations bill andcontinues to resist changing course in Iraq, I will work to ensure thislegislation receives a vote in the Senate in the next work period,"Reid said in a statement. The Feingold-Reid bill calls for Bushto begin withdrawing troops within four months, similar to the languagein the Senate's $122 billion spending package. But it would prohibitfunding beyond the March 31 deadline, except for counterterrorism,security and training operations.
Here are Ms. Hess' concerns, as a rebuttal to the Reid plan:
Update: Hillary, from Iowa, cops out on the Reid funding plan, but insists that the president shouldn't veto the bill that specifies a date-specific for Iraq withdrawal:"This is vetoing the will of the American people," Clinton said. "It istime for us to get them out of the middle of this sectarian civil war." Meanwhile, at American Thinker, Kyle-Anne Shiver wonders whether running a war by poll is the way to go:Am I the only Americancitizen who is appalled by this method of conducting a war? The mediatakes the polls, passes the information to the Congress. The Congressspends a whole lot of time -- which amounts to a whole lot of our money -- publicly discussing their interpretations of the polling data in an effort to gauge public opinion, then acts on this hardINTEL by passing legislation that reflects last Friday night's publicopinion on the Iraq War. This is pure lunacy. It is an insult toanyone with even a modicum of common sense. Thank goodness we do nothave a President who is playing this dangerous game with our nation'ssecurity.
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