Posted June 22, 2006 4:00 PM
Posted by David Lightman at 3:56 pm CDT
You win some in Congress, you lose some. And you win by losing 86-13.
So said Sens. John Kerry and Russell Feingold today, after their bid to require the president to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq by July, 2007, lost by that lopsided margin.
But don't count the loss as a loss, they said.
"It was a striking vote," Feingold explained. "It was more than anybody thought we would get."
Last week, a similar effort, with a Dec. 31 pullout date, got six votes.
As a result, said Kerry, today's outcome was "terrific, several votes more than we anticipated. It was a victory in a sense."
(Lightman reports for the Hartford Courant newspaper which is owned by the Tribune Co.)
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Comments
If Kerry and Feingold are serious about their convictions, this is not a "good news" defeat - no matter the increase in support for their position. If you strongly believe that the U.S. should leave now - I do not - then you can't be happy with the results of the vote.
But all of this is much ado about nothing. As I have been saying for months, the U.S. will begin pulling out by the middle of 2007- whether there is an improvement in Iraq or not.
And when we leave, Iraq will eventually splinter into a civil war.
The question for the NEXT president will be: What do we do NOW?
Posted by: Jorge from Bloomington | June 22, 2006 4:53 PM
Yet another "victory" for the anti-war crowd, on top of their "victories" in California-50, in the Senate last week, in .... If they seriously believe that their crushing 86-13 annihilation is a "victory", they have no grasp of reality and thus can't be trusted with the nation's government.
Doubtless they would have proclaimed Custer's Last Stand a victory for the 7th Cavalry.
Posted by: Bruce | June 22, 2006 5:38 PM
This administration is incapable of doing anything good in Iraq that can out weigh its destructiveness. How long will it take until enough US voters realize what a disaster the Bush administration and congress have made out of Iraq?
Every politician should repeat the following principal 1000 times: NEVER START A WAR!
Posted by: Robert F. Thornthwaite | June 22, 2006 9:07 PM
Quoth Jorge from Bloomington: "And when we leave, Iraq will eventually splinter into a civil war."
And what, Jorge, would you call the situation there now? (Hint: Iraqis are killing Iraqis.}
Posted by: Figbash | June 23, 2006 5:49 AM
Bruce, I wouldn't be walking around talking about people who can't tell the difference between a gain and a loss if I were you. If you can't tell when Trib readership is gaining or losing, you're probably too senile to tell about the effects of this vote, too.
Posted by: John | June 23, 2006 5:51 AM
Dear Mr. Figbash,
You ain't seen nothin' yet.
Posted by: Jorge from Bloomington | June 23, 2006 3:17 PM