Democrats are weak, wimpy liberals who are too scared to stand up to Republicans. Right? You couldn’t be more wrong! And yet with the House of Representatives passing a “non-binding” resolution to oppose the president’s recent proposed troop surge, they further the stereotype by not even having the guts to censure the president over the fact that he has overstepped his boundaries once again and is completely disregarding Congress’ opinion and their authority to decide the number of troops that are deployed.
This rebuke of the president’s plan for Iraq is a positive. However, it is nowhere near enough to show that he cannot just act like a dictator and do whatever he wants with the military of this country. When the Democrats have the power to make a difference in the direction the United States is heading, what do they do? They take a cowardly option and pass a non-binding resolution in the House instead of stopping what the President is doing. Congress has essentially backed down from the bully harassing and torturing them instead of seizing a golden opportunity to get back at the bully and make things right again.
This bill has now died in the Senate and is done but the Democrats’ message, however weak it is, has been heard by President Bush, even if he continues to ignore it.
In a new effort to change the course of the Iraq War and to regain the power that was given to Congress in the Constitution, Senate Democrats are drafting a bill to limit the mission of the United States in Iraq. Led by Senate Majority Leader, Democrats look to cut back on the number of soldiers that are in harm’s way but instead of presenting a solution to the war, they just advocate getting out of Iraq and leaving it to the Iraqis.
As someone who opposes this war, I’m happy that the war will hopefully be ending soon. However, the solution that the Democrats are proposing is not something that leaves the Middle East safe and will actually put the United States and our allies in greater danger. If the United States just leaves Iraq it will become a haven for terrorists, much like the United States’ ally, Saudia Arabia. If this happens, Israel will end up in a war with the entire Middle East and will probably be destroyed, leaving the Middle East a safe haven for all anti-American terrorists.
Delaware’s Democratic Senator Joe Biden has proposed a viable, though less publicized solution for Iraq. Instead of just staying or leaving, Biden proposes to decentralize Iraq’s government, dividing the country into three states: one for the Kurds, one for the Shiites and one for the Sunnis. Each individual group will have local control over each of its daily lives. The United States would secure the borders at first but then hand over control to the Iraqi central government, which will be responsible for common interests like the economy and national security.
Democrats should propose this solution to the war instead of just pulling out all together and not cleaning up the mess we made. Instead, they reprimand the president with non-binding resolutions and propose to leave our mess for a cleaning service that is never coming.
