Iraq Surge - it's all about selfish politicians & re-election

There's something inherently wrong with elected ones putting their careers in Congress over the fate of Iraq, stability in the Middle East, and our own security. To boot, statements made are so condescending they are mind boggling. Do they really think the voters memories are that short term???

i.e.....

Senator Lugar, the Indiana Republican and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, this week demanded a new strategy from the White House for Iraq. Meanwhile, the White House itself is quietly approaching disgruntled Republicans in the hope of coming up with a compromise Iraq solution for the fall.

Uh... don't help here. Isn't this "surge" a new strategy? And before this new strategy can even be given the opportunity to come to fruition, they are already demanding yet another "new strategy?

Ya just can't please some, can you now?

But it's no surprise this push for a fast, perceived win is nothing but political posturing for the 2008 election.

General Petraeus, who commands Multinational Forces Iraq, has explicitly lowered expectations in this regard, suggesting that the work of the surge will not be completed by September, that it may be too soon to make a judgment on the next strategy, and that he would need up to nine years to defeat the insurgency fully. One American officer familiar with early drafts of the assessments of the surge says that it will emphasize that Iraqi Security Forces are still at risk for infiltration, particularly if American soldiers withdraw.

For now, it appears that Republicans in Congress do not want to hear this sort of thing.

"People want to have some sense that this is not without end. Nixon beat McGovern because Nixon was leaving and McGovern wanted to surrender. Right now you have Bush saying we are not going to leave. If the president can stick the word ‘leaving' into the strategy, he will be fine," the president of Americans for Tax Reform, Grover Norquist, said Monday. "He cuts his problems in the Republican party in half, if people believe there will be fewer troops in six months than today."

Yep... all about votes and nothing to do with actually winning. Our Congress and their self-absorbed attitudes are despicable. As evidenced by historically low Congressional approval numbers, few of us commoners out here think the elitist in the beltway have nary a grip on reality. Albeit that low number includes those like myself - disgusted with their cut and run cowardice - combined with thew numbers on the opposing viewpoint - the anti-any-war advocates. Oddly enough, it's one of the few things we can all be united on.... Congress is as worthless as the UN, but infintely more dangerous.

T'would be nice to "take back the country"... the best way being to fire pretty much all of Congress and start over with fresh blood, sans obligations and career politician intentions. However all too many of us are led around by the nose, herded by an opinioned media and their influential headlines. So any new choices are likely to be as dismal as the players in the game now.

Perhaps the most disturbing element of this to me - the WH is apparently caving on their convictions, already willing to make Iraq and their future (as well as ours) the sacrificial lamb in order to boost GOP numbers. Feh... However I'm not the only one disturbed about this "throwing in the towel" 'tude.

These signs suggest General Petraeus may be walking into a collision with the president who chose him to command the theater in Iraq in January. "We have been asked to bleed for this," one American officer said on condition of anonymity. "And we think it's a good cause. But we have no intention of being screwed over by this president."

Mr. Kagan, who said he was still persuaded Mr. Bush supported the war, also warned that Mr. Bush could be choosing to assuage his party at the cost of his best general: "If the president, driven by his advisers or congressional confrere, try to find some way of defining victory down, well at some point he will have to make a decision about whether he is prepared to ignore the advice of the most talented commander who ever served under him."

Indeed. And as CIC, who has not fallen to the poll popularity contest heretofore, I would be sorely disappointed to see him do so at this late date, merely for votes.