Who’s Iraq Policy

Jon Henke rips into the David Broder & the Washington Post:

David Broder thinks he detects “Signs of an Iraq Policy” from the Democrats…

It has taken a long time, but the Democrats finally have come close to defining a sensible common ground on the issue of Iraq. … [The] outlines of such a position emerged last week in speeches by two respected Democratic members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden of Delaware and Barack Obama of Illinois.

[...]Biden, the committee’s senior Democrat, said in New York that it is time to scale back U.S. ambitions in Iraq and reduce troop commitment while shifting security responsibilities to the Iraqis. … What must happen to make it possible, they agree, is a significant acceleration in the training of Iraqi security forces and in the civil reconstruction projects needed to give Iraqis a sense of hope?both of which will require a change in priorities and an improvement in operations by U.S. forces.

So, after 2 years of debating Iraq policy, the Democrats have decided that training Iraqi security forces to take over and reducing US deployments as they do?”as Iraq stands up, we will stand down”?is the best course in Iraq? And this epiphany, David Broder writes, may have “pointed the administration and the country toward a realistic and modestly hopeful course on Iraq.”

What the…?!?!?! This has been the strategy all along. Back in June, I wrote that the exit strategy went from “Regime change [to] Reconstruction of infrastructure and democratic institutions [to] Sustainable, democratic government.” We would do that by, as Donald Rumsfeld said at that time, creating “an environment that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win against that insurgency.” i.e., we would build up the Democratic and security institutions.

Also in June, President Bush said

Our military strategy is clear: We will train Iraqi security forces so they can defend their freedom and protect their people, and then our troops will return home with the honor they have earned.

How this writer for the Post can write such drivel is beyond me. It’s just like the recent lefty attacks about WMD’s….like no one can dig up their past comments to prove they thought the SAME thing as the rest of us. But here, after getting their asses handed to them 403-3, they now want to portray Bush’s idea’s as their own.