Cutting and Running

Two Republican senators who oppose the administration's handling of Iraq have announced that they won't be seeking re-election. Nebraska's Chuck Hagel and Virginia's John Warner have just plain given up (although Warner was talking about running again as late as December of last year).

And who can blame them?

Funding the Occupation

Still wavering on the return to blogging. Since my internet connection is down at home and there may be a problem with me doing it at work, I don't know how long I'll be able to keep at this "return". Also, it's sometimes difficult to be serious about the world. Especially if you stand back a bit from it. And nobody ever told you this was a serious blog.

Anyway....

Proposed Troop Withdrawal Timetable

First of all I should say that, to take charge of the debate, actual anti-war proponents and people who seriously want the American troops out of Iraq ought to stop referring to this as a war and call it an occupation (like King Abdullah - see previous post) whenever they talk about it.

The outcome of the Senate vote took both parties by surprise. Republicans were stung by the defection of Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who has not supported a timetable for withdrawal before although he is his party’s most outspoken critic of the war in Congress.

“There will not be a military solution to Iraq,” Mr. Hagel declared. “Iraq belongs to the 25 million Iraqis who live there. It doesn’t belong to the United States. Iraq is not a prize to be won or lost.”

The Democrats also gained the vote of Senator Ben Nelson, a Nebraska Democrat, who voted against a withdrawal date just two weeks ago.

“People want our troops home,” Mr. Nelson said.

  NYT article

Yes, and sadly, that won't be happening.

Congress members know that won't be happening. This is a show for the next round of elections. "I voted for it." Or, "I voted against it." Whichever serves in your district. Bush has promised to veto the legislation. Would Hagel vote to override a veto? Would 2/3 of them? Barely over the necessary half voted for it in the first place.

Sheehan update

The mother of a slain soldier who has camped outside President Bush's ranch for nearly two weeks to protest the war in Iraq left Thursday to tend to her ill mother.

Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq in April last year, said her 74-year-old mother suffered a stroke. Sheehan said she and her sister were going to Los Angeles "to assess the situation" but that her supporters will continue her protest outside Bush's Texas home.

[...]

Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Republican from Nebraska and Vietnam war veteran who has been critical of Bush's handling of the war, said Thursday that Sheehan "deserves some consideration, and I think that should have been done right from the beginning."

"I think the wise course of action, the compassionate course of action, the better course of action would have been to immediately invite her in to the ranch," Hagel told CNN.

"It should have been done when this whole thing started. Listen to her."

  CNN article

The wise, compassionate, better course is not a favored one of Mr. Bush. I'm not sure we have any examples of it.