Snatching Defeat From The Jaws of Victory

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/06/357/

Snatching Defeat From The Jaws of Victory
by John Atcheson

The Republican spin machine has settled on their talking points regarding the Democrat’s vote to bring an end to the Iraqi war. As usual, they’re singing in unison. To hear the administration, Fox News, and the right wing pundits tell it, the Democrats are – all together now – undermining the troops, micro-managing the war, and leaving us vulnerable to terrorism. The Dem’s response? Well, so far, they’re all over the map – as usual. Some emphasized that the administration was going to “have to deal with us” as if this were about an inside the beltway power struggle. Others spoke of the House and Senate votes as a harbinger of what a newly unified Democratic Party could and would do. Still other’s celebrated it as the first step to ending this war.

All true, and all to the good, but in the war of sound-bites, the Dems are leaving the best arguments on the table. As a result, they’ll once again find themselves on the defensive, parrying the unified talking points of the Republicans.

Note to the Dems: It’s about the troops, stupid.

Here’s what I’d like to hear the Democrats say:

The funding Bills offer Americans two choices.

On the one hand President Bush wants to continue to send our troops over there without the right training; without the right equipment; without the rest the generals say they need to be effective; without the health care they need when they come back; and with no clear plan to end the war. Just as he’d been doing for more than four years now.

The Democratic Party’s choice is right there in the title of the House Bill: The U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Health, and Iraq Accountability Act.

We want to be sure our troops are properly trained; adequately equipped; rested and ready. We want them to be cared for when they come home. And we want to be sure we have a plan and a schedule to get us out of the fiasco the President created — a civil war that has nothing to do with fighting terrorism.

more...

have so many divisions within our own party that it makes it hard to develope a coherent message. I am ver surprised that Pelosi and Reid have held them together as well as they have. We all need to pat ourselves on the back...by keeping pressure on the Dems are FORCING them to deal with the important issues.

Three words. Says it all.