Recent Actions in Congress on Iraq

When the US House of Representatives passed their non-binding resolution that stated disagreement with President Bush's "troop surge" to Iraq, I had the thought of how useless and counter-productive such posturing was. The resolution did nothing to change the US government's political grand strategy for fighting the war in Iraq, or anywhere else against the Islamist radicals. The Democratic-dominated House was elected on the perception that the party of Jefferson, FDR and JFK would begin the process of disengagement from Iraq's civil war. The majority party leadership has only begun what may be a long, bitter process, much like it was in Vietnam after Jan. 1968. The resolution itself offered no alternative, or at least publicized one. It simply said, without any provision to enforce a new a policy, that the Administration leadership on the war was lacking.



Fair enough; but we must think how much aid and comfort to America's enemies was offered by such partisan (about 17 GOP representatives joined the Democrats in the vote) public relations. The effect of the resolution may have even more negative impact on the morale and effectiveness of US forces in Iraq. Demoralized troops are not motivated; unmotivated troops stop caring; careless troops die, and die in greater numbers. If the Democrats were serious about changing the direction of the war, they would have been better served by presenting their own grand strategy for the politics of the war. Instead, what we got was grandSTRanding for the benefits of voters, their perceptions, and the polls.



The war is presenting many hard choices for the United States and its military. The next move by the Democrats, led by Rep. John Murtha, is to use the power of military appropriations to emasculate strategic flexibility by placing conditions for the use of funds in the war appropriations bill due to come to a vote this spring. The Congress is threatening to use a Constitutional power over government funds to create war policy. That is also a disengenous play. They will not offer any alternative for fighting and winning the war politically, the grand strategy of the approach to conflict and fighting. Taking the power to direct the war policy away from the Administration, where it rightfully belongs, and bringing unto themselves the power move troops, define objectives, and execute operations is fundamentally wrong. Whereas the Administration was wrong to go beyond political policy, and take away military policy from the uniformed services, the Congress assuming the role of strategos procurator is fright with future failure.



Historians may even be reminded of the Athenian assembly listening to a demogogic traitor and ordering an expedition to Sicily, when the more reasonable people knew it would turn into the catastrophe that led to their defeat in the war against Sparta. In such demos assemblies, like Congress, voting unto themselves the public treasury at the risk of insolvency is the normal procedure. Intoxicated with the power over the purse since World War I and the really big, tax-funded budgets, can Congress be expected to prudently manage the policy of war and peace? If they can not even stop earmarks, how can they conserve the military resources, assets, and MOST IMPORTANTLY the lives of US soldiers? The Murtha Plan is a strategy for losing "less painfully" than painfully "winning decisively." In this war, we must win. Winning, even if a perception, translates into deterrence against all present and future enemies. We are much more secure with finding a means to win, even in terms like libertarian internationalism suggests, than losing in the short-term.



Although I've disagreed with the Bush Administrations approach to this war from Oct. 2002 (with documentation), I feel the ploy Congress is setting upon will be disastrous. Such Congressional meddling in policymaking was disastrous for Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam in 1973-1978. This time, the stakes are far greater. We cannot afford to let demagoguery, partisanship, and public relations rule the use of strategy!

powered by performancing firefox