Redstate

Reid's Lost War

By California Yankee Posted in Democrats — Comments (3) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

RedState is not alone in its call for Senate Majority Leader Reid to resign.

Friday, the Investor's Business Daily called for Mr. Reid to step down:

"This war is lost," the Nevada Democrat told reporters Thursday, "and this surge is not accomplishing anything."

That's odd. According to the Pentagon, the influx of tens of thousands of troops, accompanied by a new strategy focused on counterinsurgency, and led by a new commander, Gen. David Petraeus, is accomplishing plenty.

Over the past six weeks, as the Baghdad security plan has been implemented, attacks on civilians in the city have been cut roughly in half. Civilian casualties are down almost a quarter nationwide, with attacks on civilians off 17%. Only in north-central Iraq did violence grow.

[. . .]

Reid has instead given moral support to the terrorists. His "leadership" has been to try to cut off our forces' war funding. Now he has told the Islamofascists that victory is theirs if they can just keep blowing up U.S. soldiers and Iraqi citizens a little while longer.

In aiding and comforting the enemy in wartime, Reid has betrayed the office he holds, shamed the Nevadans he represents and made the Democratic Party he leads synonymous with surrender. There is one way he can repair the damage he's done to the nation: step down.

Even the press in Reid's home state is unhappy with Reid's lost war comment. Read on...

The Las Vegas Review-Journal, while not calling for Reid to resign blasted the "careful strategy" which requires that Reid and company appear to oppose the President's war strategy "to please their pacifist base" without taking any "binding" actions to change the status quo:

Enter Sen. Reid, flopping around in big red shoes like Bozo the Clown.

A few weeks ago, Sen. Reid said on a major weekend talk show that he favored a firm deadline for withdrawal of all forces from Iraq. When members of his own caucus said, "What? First we've heard," the senator went into damage control mode -- the kind that starts out with staffers explaining, "What the senator meant to say was ..."

But last week he was back at it. As the Democratic House voted 215-199 Thursday to uphold legislation ordering troops out of Iraq next year, Sen. Reid appeared in public to declare the war in Iraq is "lost."

That is truly an amazing thing for a Senate Majority Leader to say in time of war with our troops still fighting. You can watch Reid's declaration of defeat below.

Thankfully Reid is wrong. The war is not lost. Nevertheless, if Reid now believes the war should be ended, he ought to abide by that conviction and try to end the war funding instead of playing this dangerous slow bleed political game strategy designed to secure a political advantage in 2008. We are wisely told not to question the patriotism of those opposed to the war. I agree with that, but I do question the patriotism of someone who provides moral support to the terrorists. Is this the sort of leadership that the Democratic party wants? Is this what Democrats voted for - a majority leader who, even if unintended, provides moral support for our enemy in wartime?