AP Admits Dems Hoping For Defeat
“… Democrats worry that credible reports of even slight improvements in the military situation in Iraq could hurt their party’s momentum”
WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats are warily anticipating a September report on the Iraq war, realizing that opponents will use any upbeat assessment to portray them as defeatists just as glimmers of hope appear.
While many of their party colleagues find the notion fanciful, they acknowledge that top Republicans hope the report will show just enough progress in Iraq to persuade millions of Americans to be patient about troop withdrawals and less critical of how the war is being run.
Democratic candidates for president and Congress, the GOP argument goes, would then be stuck with their Iraq-is-lost stance, appearing irresolute and beholden to liberal activists just as things are looking better.
Many Democratic strategists consider it highly unlikely that a Bush administration report could convince voters the war is improving in a meaningful way. Polling data suggest most Americans are unlikely to change their views about the war based on a new report from the administration.
Still, some Democrats worry that credible reports of even slight improvements in the military situation in Iraq could hurt their party’s momentum, built largely on public disenchantment with President Bush and his handling of the war. The administration is writing the September update while consulting with Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker. Both men will testify before Congress.
In late July, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., said an upbeat assessment from Petraeus would carry significant weight with his party’s most conservative members. They would “want to stay the course, and if the Republicans were to stay united as they have been, then it would be a problem for us,” Clyburn told The Washington Post.
Republicans pounced on the remark, claiming Democrats see any progress in Iraq as a political setback. They also trumpeted a July 30 op-ed article in the New York Times by two Brookings Institution military scholars just back from Iraq.
“We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms,” wrote Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack. “We were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily ‘victory’ but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.”
Some Democratic lawmakers have drawn similar conclusions, putting new strains on party solidarity. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., recently returned from Iraq and said he no longer supports a hard deadline for troop withdrawals.
“I have come to believe that calls for premature withdrawal may make it more difficult for Iraqis to solve their problems,” Baird told The Columbian newspaper. The Democratic Party leadership “may be in a different place than I am right now,” he said.
Bush’s allies hope more good news will come from next month’s administration report to Congress, even though no one expects a thoroughly optimistic assessment. U.S. military leaders have said some Iraqi regions—such as the area around Mosul in the north and Al Anbar province in the west—may be stable enough to let U.S. troops redeploy elsewhere.
House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, responding in writing to a reporter’s question, said: “Democratic leaders made a political calculation in January and it is proving to be dead wrong.”
“Ignoring American successes in favor of advocating failure is not leadership,” he said.
With few exceptions, top national Democrats have called the war a mistake. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in April he believed that “this war is lost and that the surge is not accomplishing anything.” Reid was referring to the roughly 30,000 troops and support personnel sent to Iraq this spring.
Of the party’s major presidential contenders, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has opposed the war from the start; former Sen. John Edwards has apologized for his 2002 vote to authorize the war; and Sen. Hillary R. Clinton says Americans want “a leader who will end the war in Iraq.”
Yet all three have cautioned against a hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops that could lead to greater sectarian violence in Iraq.
Several conservative commentators, anticipating the September report, say Democrats have climbed out too far on a dangerous limb. “Democrats, who have been pandering to their anti-war base, will increasingly see that they have… ‘a problem,’” William Kristol wrote this month in the Weekly Standard, alluding to Clyburn’s remarks.
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Horrible. How can these people be so coldhearted?
All they want to do is win the elections and forget that there are men and women fighting and dying not only for the country, but also to help save the country of Iraq. I mean, think of the children (the nice ones, not the bomb-throwing mean ones) and the Iraqi soldiers and interpreters who are risking their lives and their families’ lives.
August 20th, 2007 at 10:49 pmDisgusting Democrats. I never believed that anyone could be so cruel but omg, now I see that such people exist.
Is the fundamental vileness that is the modern Democrat party any better shown than in this article?
But maybe Al Queda will murder Justin Timberlake and give them an out with the anti-war base.
How fucked up have things gotten that we have the power structure of one major party devoted to American defeat in a war in a time of real jeopardy.
Would our grand parents ever have imagined we’d see this day?
HOW DARE YOU QUESTION THEIR PATRIOTISM?!!!
Beam me up.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:30 pmIn case the AP needs it,
the correct spelling for traitor is:
L-I-B-E-R-A-L.
August 20th, 2007 at 11:34 pmThe defeatotreasonocrats are fully invested in the U.S. losing this war. Their acquiring of political power means more to them them than winning this war. DISGUSTING! At least McCain has said that he’d “rather lose an election than the war” and for that he has my respect. The defeatotreasonocrats, on the other, have lost any and all of my respect, of which there was little to begin with.
August 21st, 2007 at 1:14 amHOLD THE DEMOCRATS & AL-QUEDAS FEET TO THE FIRE! DO NOT LET UP FOR WHEN WE DO LET UP, THEY WILL SLIT YOUR THROATS!
August 21st, 2007 at 3:32 ammiddle of sept. will really be interesting..it will be hard to spin the truth, though the bastards will try, but hopefully they will just dig their hole deeper..no reward for sleeping with the enemy
August 21st, 2007 at 4:24 amShe looks like a bleached our crow and he is a beady eyed little weasel(no offense to a weasel intended) and a lot of people for whatever reason are ignorant enough to believe the shit they are shoveling while the rest shake there heads in disblief and do nothing.
Not only do we need to turn our boys and girls loose on the enemies of our country abroad we need to take care of the enemy within by getting rid of pieces of shit traitors like the two above.
August 21st, 2007 at 5:58 am““… Democrats worry that credible reports of even slight improvements in the military situation in Iraq could hurt their party’s momentum””
What a despicable comment. These MF’s care more about the election than they do about winning the war and supporting the troops.
The old bull cow and her sow are doing all that they can to suck the wind out of the sails of our troops.
Traitors ….fucking traitors….If these two jerkoffs were dead, I’d have to piss on their headstones.
August 21st, 2007 at 6:07 amHow many American and coalition lives have these traitors cost? Even an idiot has to know long they have prolonged this war. This war would have over by now if it had not been for the surrender party. How can these people sleep at night. Drugs?
August 21st, 2007 at 6:40 amI used to have more faith in the American public, John and Suzie Sixpack, that however has changed. Especially in the strongholds of stupidity like California and Nevada. I fear we are surrounded by absolute idiots that lack the simple ability of thinking about cause and effect and long term thinking.
One of my big hopes is that when the troops do begin to cycle home for good some will take leadership roles in our communities and start to throw out these bums, both democan and republicrat.
August 21st, 2007 at 8:40 am