Exit as Stage Prop

by: Dark Wraith

Before opponents of continued American involvement in Iraq elevate their hopes too much over what appears to be new-found vigor in congressional Democrats baiting Republicans into a filibuster on a resolution for a troop withdrawal timetable, it might be worth the effort to read what Time magazine has to say about what's really going on behind the scenes in Washington.

The all-nighter is a public relations stunt by the Democrats stung by growing voter dissatisfaction with their inability—or, less charitably, unwillingness—to change the course of the nation in either its international affairs or its domestic trajectory. The Tuesday all-nighter is a golden, well-staged, carefully planned setup to force Republicans into a show so constituents can see that something is being done, and that something is being done by the hard-working opposition party as it tries just about anything to get past the virtually impenetrable obstacle of an obstinate President and his loyal allies.

Here's the reality: this spectacle, produced by Sen. Harry Reid and his merry band of followers, will materially change nothing whatsoever, either about the course of the American-Iraqi War or about how the Democrats in Congress and the Bush Administration are going to get their respective wishes granted, all while Iraq, itself, continues to disintegrate, taking a good chunk of the Middle East around it into the maelstrom of political instability, sectarian mini-wars, massive refugee movements, homegrown and imported violence, and finally—for the home team's consumption—a direct military confrontation between the United States and Iran that at least some powerful Democrats, as well as Republicans, already know is virtually inevitable.

Oh, yes, American soldiers will be continuing to die in our favorite, home-away-from-home, God-forsaken Mesopotamian Hell-hole while the political theater currently running in the Capitol Building plays itself out for the C-Span crowd and the Sunday talking heads circuit.

More solemnly than even that, American soldiers (and a whole lot more Iraqis) will still be dying next week, next month, and for the foreseeable future. The Democrats cannot stop this. All they can do is make sure the show they're putting on gets better, lest people start looking for the real exit from the theater instead of the phony prop the Democrats use for their grand and repeated entries to the stage of battle with a President who is more than their match.

Is the above an unduly, unfairly harsh assessment? Count the bodies of dead American soldiers between now and the end of the year; then ask, "How many fewer would there have been if the Democrats had begun impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush and Richard V. Cheney on Tuesday, July 17, 2007?"

Of course, one might argue that timing is everything in politics.

To the next dead American soldier, though, timing means nothing.



The Dark Wraith has spoken.

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