[Peace-discuss] God Bless the Senate Republicans

[C. G. Estabrook]

	God Bless the Senate Republicans
	Sat, 2007-11-17 15:50
	By Mike Ferner

Into every tragically depressing world situation some light must shine 
if you wait long enough and the planets align just right.

That glimmer of light came today from, of all places, the Death Star 
known by many as Washington, D.C., from deep within one of the most 
unfathomable quadrants of that bleakness – the chambers of the United 
States Senate. Even more remarkably, it sprang from what some consider a 
true black hole – the Republican caucus.

But still it is light, and in these times we need to celebrate every 
photon that comes our way.

Today, the Senate voted 53-45, seven votes short of the 60 needed to 
advance the bill, against a $50,000,000,000 “supplemental” funding 
measure passed earlier this week by the Democratic-controlled House of 
Representatives. What the Republicans objected to was the limp, 
inconsequential troop withdrawal plan supported by House and Senate 
Democrats – something that Groucho Marx would have much more accurately 
termed, “a sham of a mockery of a sham.”

The sham-of-a-mockery-of-a-withdrawal that the Republicans just could 
not stomach required the president to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq by 
December, 2008 – except, that is, for a few thousand to guard the 
world’s largest embassy, another ten thousand or so to train Iraqi armed 
forces, another ten thousand or so to protect U.S. citizens in Iraq 
including those pillars of the community from Blackwater, Inc., and 
another ten thousand or so that would be stationed “just beyond the 
horizon” ready to squash any resistance to the Iraqi government we leave 
behind.

This was the “withdrawal” plan the Democrats wanted in exchange for 
another 50 billion dollars to continue the war. To paraphrase the late 
Republican Senator Everett Dirksen: “Even though the dollar is rapidly 
going down the toilet, pretty soon you’re talking some serious money here.”

To the Senate Republicans I send a warm “thank you” for killing a 
$50,000,000,000 cash infusion into this tragic, illegal war.

To the scores of peace activists around the country preparing to occupy 
their U.S. Senators’ local offices to press them to vote against more 
war funding I say, “Declare victory in this round. And get 10 friends to 
occupy those offices with you in February, when the Democrats will feel 
compelled to bail out Bush again.”

To MoveOn.org and similar groups whose main purpose in life is toadying 
up to the Democratic Party, I say, “Spare us your mobilizations of 
well-meaning citizens to bombard the airwaves and street corners with a 
‘Damn the Republicans for voting against a timetable to end the war’ 
message. Leave the internet lines open for more sincere emails like 
Nigerian business opportunities and penis patches.”

And to anyone who thinks this too cynical or too hard on our last, best 
hope, the Congressional Democrats, I commend this pompous, arrogant, 
condescending quote dripping with hubris from a leading Senate liberal, 
Carl Levin (D-MI), during today’s Senate debate: “We need to do more 
than say to the Iraqis that our patience has run out and that they need 
to seize the opportunity that has been given them…Their dawdling will 
only end when they have no choice.”

Yes, it’s quite an opportunity we’ve given the Iraqis, Senator Levin…but 
then they are such an ungrateful, dawdling lot.

###

Mike Ferner is a freelance writer from Ohio and author of “Inside the 
Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq.”

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/28791