See You In September. Hopefully

Posted on June 3, 2007

In yet another sign of just how pathetic America’s political class has become, it seems that leaders in both parties have decided to punt on the question of withdrawal from Iraq until September.

The rationale given for the delay is usually something along the lines of “we need to give the ‘surge’ some time, so we can see if it’s working or not before we pull the plug.” But that’s just a fig leaf. Nobody believes that the ‘surge’ is going to have miraculously improved Iraq by September. Even if it lives up to the wildest claims made for it, the best we can hope for is that it will have somewhat reduced the level of violence in Baghdad. That would still leave years of occupation ahead to finish the job — years that America just isn’t prepared to give.

The real reason for the delay, of course, is that it lets our “leaders” weasel out of making a tough decision for awhile, and hope that Events will somehow bail them out in the meantime.

I call this “pathetic” because (a) everyone knows what the conclusion will be in the end, delay or no, and (b) each day the decision is delayed, U.S. soldiers are dying for a cause that their leaders have already given up on.

In May, 127 American soldiers were killed in Iraq. That’s a little more than 4 killed every day. Assuming that rate holds steady, that means 499 more soldiers will die in Iraq so that our “leaders” can play it safe politically.

And that’s not including the number of wounded, which will be in the thousands. Or the Iraqi civilians who will die in the crossfire.

The next time you hear some politician — Republican or Democrat — bloviating about how they “support our troops”, ask them if they support waiting until September to do something about Iraq. And if they do, ask them what definition of “supporting our troops” includes sending hundreds of them off to die for no better reason that to give him or her an out from making the hard choices.

Pathetic.