It’s Iraq, Stupid

It’s Iraq, Stupid

November 2, 2006

When Americans go to the polls on November 7, they will not be voting because Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) botched a joke about President Bush on Monday—notwithstanding the national media’s 48-hour fixation on Kerry’s remarks. Nor will they be voting because President Bush, also on Monday, claimed that if critics of his Iraq policy are victorious, “the terrorists win and America loses.” That comment was mostly ignored. According to the final pre-election New York Times/CBS poll, Americans will be voting because they desperately want a new direction in Iraq. The Times reports, “Americans cited Iraq as the most important issue affecting their vote, and majorities of Republicans and Democrats said they wanted a change in the government’s approach to the war.”

• President Bush and other conservatives continue to support Donald Rumsfeld. President Bush yesterday extended a “job guarantee to two of the most-criticized members of his team,” telling reporters he wants Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney “to remain in his administration until the end of his presidency.” Also yesterday, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) again vigorously defended Rumsfeld’s conduct of the war in Iraq. “[L]et’s not blame what’s happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld,” he told CNN, echoing his sentiments earlier this week when he claimed that Rumsfeld is the “best thing that’s happened to the Pentagon in 25 years” and was doing a “marvelous job.”
  
  

• A realistic, forward-looking strategy is needed in Iraq. Yesterday, The New York Times reported on a classified U.S. military briefing prepared two weeks ago that “portrays Iraq as edging toward chaos,” with “urban areas experiencing ‘ethnic cleansing’ campaigns to consolidate control” and “violence at all-time high, spreading geographically.” The assessment stood in stark contrast to President Bush’s rosy declaration last week that the U.S. is “absolutely” winning in Iraq. But the U.S. military’s assessment tracks closely with the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s third quarterly “report card” this year on the administration’s handling of Iraq, also released last week. That evaluation found Iraq “on the brink of collapse with growing violence, increased sectarian tensions and divisions in the Iraqi national government, and few significant advances in Iraq’s economic reconstruction.” And despite White House Press Secretary Tony Snow’s comments to the contrary, progressives have a clear, detailed plan for Iraq and the broader struggle against global terrorist networks.
  
  

• The Iraqi Prime Minister is allowing radical Shiite militias to influence his politics. Last week, U.S. forces imposed military blockades and checkpoints throughout Sadr City, primarily to assist in the search for an American soldier who was kidnapped on October 23 by the militia led by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Early Tuesday, al-Sadr called for a general strike and civil disobedience until the checkpoints were removed, and “by lunchtime” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered U.S. troops to pullback and dismantle the checkpoints. The move was a further sign that Maliki, who government relies on political support from al-Sadr, is increasingly resisting cracking down on sectarian militias responsible for much of the violence in Iraq. Iraq’s Sunni Arab vice president, Tariq al-Hashimi, warned “the easing of a security crackdown…may be emboldening members of Shiite death squads.”