November seems so long ago. That was when Democrats retook both houses of Congress, riding a wave of discontent over Iraq back into power.
So where do we stand now? We have a president buried even deeper in the grip of his own delusions — he continues to believe we can “win” in Iraq, though how winning is defined seems amorphous, and he’s still blaming foreign radicals for the violence, even though it is pretty clear that much of it is homgrown.
But this is not unexpected.
What is so troubling is that the new Democratic majority seems to be pushing inexplicably for a troop increase — both for the general military and as a temporary measure in Iraq.
Thankfully, Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the incoming chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, has raised a red flag on the increase:
“The time for a troop increase,” he said, “was about 3 1/2 years ago, when we initially went into Iraq.”
I don’t buy that things would have been different, but I am glad to see him stand up so forcefully on this. Let’s get the troops home, bring in the United Nations and the neighboring nations and see if we can stem the violence. Of course, we’ll have to hand over the checkbook to pay for it — but Colin Powell did warn the president.
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Hank Kalet 