Bush's Iraq Offensive

If President George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Karl Rove are worried that they have a losing political hand at home when it comes to Iraq, it isn’t evident from this week’s news. Less than five months before the November elections, a vote that will be a referendum on Bush’s imperial venture in Iraq, the president laid down his final marker on Iraq for 2006. The administration’s electoral strategy is to point proudly to Bush’s criminal mayhem in that war-battered country and challenge voters to endorse it. His message to antiwar Democrats and to the solid majority of voters opposed to the war? Bring ‘em on!

Although polls show that a solid majority of American voters oppose the war and believe that the 2003 invasion was a mistake, it looks unlikely that the loyal opposition – the Democrats – will come up with a successful counter-strategy.

Despite the emergence of a hardy band of antiwar Democrats calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq – the latest, most active convert being Sen. John Kerry – it seems clear that the Democrats are hopelessly divided. So far, at least, they’ve refused to “nationalize” the congressional elections around the only issue that matters, Iraq. And, while many congressional Democrats and other party officials are prepared to argue that the war itself was a mistake, the bulk of the party’s elite is dithering over the only truly important issue: get out or stay? The argument that appears to have carried the day among top Democrats is that the United States has a moral obligation to stay in Iraq. Personally, I’d like to see those Democrats – including Hillary Clinton, Rahm Emanuel, Steny Hoyer, and Joe Lieberman, along with the Democratic Leadership Council and the editors of The New Republic – go to Haditha and say that.

In speeches and interviews with reporters, Karl Rove – freed from the shadow of an indictment in the Valerie Plame leak – is on a two-fisted offensive. Speaking in New Hampshire, Rove gave a chilling preview of the Republican strategy for November. He blasted Kerry, Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, and other Dems who’ve called for getting out of Iraq. “They may be with you for the first shots. But they’re not going to be with you for the tough battles,” said Rove. “When it gets tough, and when it gets difficult, they fall back on that party’s old pattern of cutting and running. … If Murtha had his way, American troops would have been gone by the end of April, and we wouldn’t have gotten Zarqawi.” You can already see many Democrats cringing. You can see them asking their campaign consultants and pollsters: Can we talk about immigration instead? The environment? Health care?

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http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/06/14/bushs_iraq_offensive.php