Democrats choose Anti-War Lite

The Democrats have issued a unity statement that pretends to oppose the Iraq War. While I’m cheered they’ve finally managed agreed on something, their statement, even if implemented, would do little if anything to actually end the war.

In their words, Democrats now favor a “phased redeployment of US troops from Iraq.”

Redeployment:

To move (military forces) from one combat zone to another.

Um, so how does sending troops from one combat zone to another result in bringing them home? Inquiring minds want to know. But the larger point is the “phased” part. They are deliberately vague on what that means. Plus there’s always the proviso that should “situations” on the ground change, then the withdrawal would be postponed.

The Democrats also say that some troops will of course remain, and focus on “counterterrorism, training and logistical support of Iraqi security forces, and force protection of U.S. personnel.”

Thus, the Dems want to keep troops there while saying some should come home except, y’know, for those who need to stay. The new US mission sounds quite a lot like the current mission, doesn’t it? Plus, the poor dears still think “Iraqi security forces” can be trained to clean up the mess the US created – except when they’re shooting at each other and at Americans, that is. Oh, that pesky civil war and those darned insurgents, why won’t they just do what Democrats inside the DC Beltway Bubble want them to do?

Nowhere in their statement is anything about the Iraqi people. It’s all about the US, about how the current war makes the US look bad, so we need to do something to clean up the public image of the US. A spritz of room freshener, perhaps? But there’s not a peep about the thousands of dead Iraqi civilians or the destroyed infrastructure of that country or the obvious fact that virtually all Democrats accepted Bush’s lies and voted for the war. Nope, Democrats won’t be speaking about any of that.

Instead they will try to suck the energy out of the growing antiwar (and immigration rights) movements in the country into the Democratic Party where it will be defused and neutered. This pretend antiwar statement from them is a clear example of Democrats performing their historic role of diffusing dissent while pretending to embrace it.

See you August 12.