Pony Policy

Jonathan Rauch.

Painfully aware that the Iraq war has given commentators a lesson in
humility, I offer the following assessment with no certainty at all but with the
hope of at least contributing to clarity: The Bush Surge is unlikely to work,
but Congress should not try to stop it.

...

First, the Constitution. It provides for one commander-in-chief, not 536. A
determined president can evade all but the tightest congressional attempts to
override his military decisions, and any sufficiently tight congressional
strictures are likely to emasculate the presidency and fracture the Congress.

Second, politics. Blocking the president's last-resort plan would
divide the country for years to come. Many Republicans would believe that the
war was winnable and that Democrats lost it. If the United States is going to
leave Iraq, it should do so when even Republicans agree that there is little
reason to stay -- which they will, if Bush's Hail Mary pass fails.

Third, morality. America has not quite discharged its debt to Iraq.
Apart from evacuating as many as possible of those Iraqis who personally aided
the American effort, the United States can do nothing for moderate and
peace-loving Iraqis if the Baghdad government is determined to press or abet a
sectarian agenda. A tragedy will unfold. But if there is any chance that the
Iraqi government might yet be salvageable, then the United States owes it to the
Iraqis to find out.

Ahem:

1. Commander in chief is a nominal title, not a job description. Leave the strategy and tactics to the people who understand a thing or two about war. By the same logic used above, is it ok that the President already did the same thing to Congress? 536 voices strike me as a little less dictatorial than 1. Never mind that the fracturing was done by Republicans years and years ago. Democrats are united on this
2. See Vietnam. The mistake was not leaving when we did, it was assuming that the GOP zombies and their zombie cohorts would wake up and smell reality brewing on the stove. We now know better. This fight has to be waged across all media channels to prevent something like this from ever happening again. Furthermore, who cares what elected Republicans think? There are only a couple hundred of them, as opposed to the majority of U.S. citizens who want the U.S. to leave
3. Just as there is no such thing as a free lunch, there is no such thing as a free pony in Iraq. Following through on this plan will cost more of both American and Iraqi lives, money and also runs the very, very, very high probability of making things even worse. This is a decision that a down-on-his-luck gambling addict, not a rational person, would make. You should never make other people suffer for your guilt

Another day, another pundit who continues to not understand that we will never get our pony.