I am thrilled that Senator Kerry has a part in drafting this proposal. I agree also, enough is enough with these non-commital- non- binding bills that are going no-where. One can not reason with President Bush. The only thing that will get his attention is a bill that will challange his authority and put him on notice that he can not just do what he wants in Iraq and with our soldiers lives without working with the Congress. My only regret, the Dem’s should have signed on to the Kerry/Feingold Amendment back in June of 06. That would have been the right thing to do. However, better late than never- at least party leadership is coming around to see good reasons to act agressively now.
Senator Kerry- always ahead of the pack!

I am very glad that the Democrats are coming together to form this council on what to do about the war in Iraq and in Afghanistan.  Sen. Kerry should be involved in this.  In his Sept 9th, 2007 speech he summed up what was wrong with the Bush Administration’s approach to war and foreign policy with these statements:

There is simply no way to overstate how Iraq has subverted our efforts to free the world from global terror. It has overstretched our military. It has served as an essential recruitment tool for terrorists. It has divided and pushed away our traditional allies. It has diverted critical billions of dollars from the real front lines against terrorism and from homeland security. It has unleashed dangerous, pent-up forces of radical religious extremism. It has weakened moderate leaders in the Middle East. It has strengthened and played into Iran’s hand. It has diminished our moral authority in the world.

The demagogic drumbeat about fighting terrorists over there instead of here—even though they weren’t in Iraq until we went in, and it’s now a civil war we’re fighting—has compromised America’s real interests and made us less safe than we ought to be five years after 9/11. The true measure of that is the stark fact that worldwide terrorist attacks are at an all-time high and there are now more terrorists in the world who want to kill Americans than there were at the time of 9/11.

That is an excellent roundup of what is wrong with the current Bush policy.  The Republicans in Congress need to see this, need to see that the government is stepping in the way of it’s own stated goal to make the world safer and the Middle East more stable by pursuing a policy that pretty much guarantees the opposite.

I agree with what Sen. Kerry has been saying, we need US troops in Iraq for three definable reasons:  to provide training for Iraqi forces; pursue real threats of Al Qaeda activity in the area; and to provide security for legitimate US interests there, including the safety of US personnel who need to be in that region for diplomatic reasons.

These goals were stated in the press accounts of what concerns are on the minds of the Democratic Senators who are revisiting the IWR autorization.  Good. The goal should be to limit US participation to these things.  These goals are flexible enough to be carried out, don’t restrain the US from legitimate and necessary activity in the area and don’t contribute to a greater participation by US troops in a civil war. I am very happy to see that Sen. Kerry’s well-thought out approach is being incorporated into the Democratic agenda and urge him to continue to fight for these ideas. They are right, moral and better represent US policy than the pursuit of endless war without a real plan or goal or end-date.