Hang up the victory banners
What's with the hubbub over President Bush's second veto ever?
Sure, Bush vetoed an Iraq war funding bill today because it included a bunch of language about timetables and benchmarks and such. He even used the term "date for failure" to refer to a plan to set a date between now and, say, the end of time to begin limited withdrawals of American troops.
But all this talk about failure is odd, because according to Bush, we already prevailed in "the battle of Iraq." It happened four years ago to this day, in fact, on the same day the Pentagon said we also won the battle of Afghanistan. And history has borne those declarations out: "Major combat operations" are pretty much a thing of the past in those nations, as long as your definition of "major combat operations" doesn't include hundreds of deadly bombings and battles with insurgents.
So with the Bush administration having declared our victories years ago, there's no sense in setting any sort of schedule by which Iraqi leaders must show progress toward stabilizing their country on their own, or worrying about the return of the illegal opium trade in Afghanistan or the increasing number of battles with Taliban fighters there, or talking about where the White House's poor planning and execution has left our Afghan and Iraqi operations on the latest anniversary of "Mission Accomplished."
After all, when you've already won, you can't lose.
Sure, Bush vetoed an Iraq war funding bill today because it included a bunch of language about timetables and benchmarks and such. He even used the term "date for failure" to refer to a plan to set a date between now and, say, the end of time to begin limited withdrawals of American troops.
But all this talk about failure is odd, because according to Bush, we already prevailed in "the battle of Iraq." It happened four years ago to this day, in fact, on the same day the Pentagon said we also won the battle of Afghanistan. And history has borne those declarations out: "Major combat operations" are pretty much a thing of the past in those nations, as long as your definition of "major combat operations" doesn't include hundreds of deadly bombings and battles with insurgents.
So with the Bush administration having declared our victories years ago, there's no sense in setting any sort of schedule by which Iraqi leaders must show progress toward stabilizing their country on their own, or worrying about the return of the illegal opium trade in Afghanistan or the increasing number of battles with Taliban fighters there, or talking about where the White House's poor planning and execution has left our Afghan and Iraqi operations on the latest anniversary of "Mission Accomplished."
After all, when you've already won, you can't lose.
posted by Alabamian at 7:55 PM
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