Mover Mike

I don't often agree with David Ignatias, columnist for the Washington Post. Today is an exception. He writes:

Try to imagine what was running through the mind of Hassan Kazemi Qomi, Iran's ambassador to Baghdad, as he sat across the negotiating table from his American counterpart, Ryan Crocker, last week.

While the U.S. diplomat delivered his stern warning against Iranian meddling in Iraq, Qomi must have wondered: Why should I listen to this guy? Congress is going to start pulling U.S. troops out soon, no matter what he says. (My emphsis)

That's the heart of the problem, as I see the anti-war movement in this country. Both sides voted approval to back up the UN Iraq Resolutions with force. I won't argue with the characterization that the war was mishandled. Bush tried to fight the war on the cheap. However, once committed, once our military starts dying, we owe it to them and our future credibility to fight to win, otherwise any enemy will say, "If we just hold on long enough, America will get tired and leave and we can have our way. If they bleed, they will leave."

The anti-war movement should make the distinction between fighting to keep us out of war and providing "aid and comfort" to the enemy once in. I think it's disgraceful to use our young and then cut and run with nothing to show for it except crosses.

One could argue that we should never go to war, never send troops anywhere in the world...unless we ruthlessly, overwhelmingly enforce our will.

David Ignatias Iraq Mover Mike

Update:

Most days I feel like I'm just writing down thoughts that are whipped away in the daily wind of stimuli. Then out of nowhere appears an editorial in the NY Times written by two liberals that says the surge is working! That editorial is followed by two columns by David Ignatias in the Washington Post. The first acknowledges a simple truth:

While the U.S. diplomat (Ryan Crocker) delivered his stern warning against Iranian meddling in Iraq, (Hassan Kazemi) Qomi, (Iran's ambassador to Baghdad) must have wondered: Why should I listen to this guy? Congress is going to start pulling U.S. troops out soon, no matter what he says. (My emphasis)

The second column appears today in the Washington Post. Ignatias relying on the NIE of July 17th asks a very good question:

Al-Qaeda has "regenerated key elements of its Homeland attack capability" using a new safe haven in the lawless frontier area of northwest Pakistan known as Waziristan.

The question is: What is the United States going to do about it?(My emphasis)

Great question!

To top it off The Oregonian in an editorial questions Mayor Tom Potter. He wants to set up a covered facility, sort of a union hall, for illegal aliens who now stand on MLK and hire on as day laborers. Potter wants to use tax payer funds to aid and abet law breakers.

Potter hopes to have at least a temporary center open by year's end. That would bring Portland into line with scores of other U.S. cities that have crossed this ridiculous Rubicon. It may be popular, it may be pragmatic, it still isn't good public policy.

And it still isn't right. (My emphasis)

Whoa Nelly! So many libs seeing it my way. What's next, the LA Times declaring George Bush the most courageous president since FDR?

David Ignatias Mayor Tom Potter Mover Mike

Update:

Daniel's Political Musings has some further thoughts on Mayor Potter's labor site.