Article: The Dem Price for Bush's Surge or Iran Adventure

The wall Street Journal, reporting on Joe Biden's opposition to Bush's surge, speculates that the Dems will use their newfound power to cut a deal with Bush, to buy leverage for some political "price."

Others speculate that the Dems will give Bush a pass on the surge, so they can't be blamed later for impeding what would have surely made the difference in "winning" the war.

This surge seems like a very bad, stupid idea-- a desperate last ditch stab at Bush's incompetent,God-directed idiocy.

Some say it is not just a "surge," it's an escalation. Others say it is just a way to increase the death count-- of Iraqis and Americans.

Some say the insurgents will just pull back while the surge is in Iraq, and they'll come back when-- if-- the surge leaves.

I that the Wall Street Journal might be right. The Dems may decide to use their influence to buy a deal from Bush. I wonder what they would buy?

An extra fift cents on the minimum wage rate?

A bump in the social security tax maximum income limit, from just under $100,000 to $150,000?

Reversal of the patriot act?

Funding of college for students in families earning under $100,000 a year?

Reversal of the elimination of habeus corpus?

Passage of a Universal Health Care package?

Passage of a solid alternative energy technologies package?

Pick one. THen let's look at the price. Figure with 20-30,000 extra troops, we'll lose an extra 1-2 a day to IEDs, kidnappings, etc.

Figure the extra troops will kill 10-100 extra Iraqis a day-- probably, mostly Sunnis.

Figure it will cost an extra few billion dollars. Figure the worst military leaders perhaps, in world history-- meaning the spineless yes-men failure generals, like TOmmy Franks, who have toadied to Bush, failing to understand the nature of the enemy they fought, the nature of the warfare, while providing lies to cover Rumsfeld, Bush and Cheney, will use the "surge" to ask for another $100 billion or so.

Figure it will drop the opinion of the USA among some of the remaining friends who haven't already concluded that the US is run by idiots and fools.

Figure the failure of the Dems to stand up to Bush on the surge could cost them the momentum with which they finished the 2006 elections.

Figure Rahm Emanuel and Joe Lieberman will see this as a political opportunity.

Figure Joe Lieberman will screw any united front the Democrats manage to cobble together.

But we can't figure that all the Republicans will get behind this. Some of them are smart enough to read the writing on the wall. Some of the Republicans may side with the Dems to help block this surge of madness.

Bush's surge is a practice run or maybe even a feint. The real test of the Democrats will be the Iran event. Whether the US or Israel starts it, there will come a time when Bush plays the same game he played with Iraq. It's already started, with apprehension of several Iraqis in Baghdad, accused of providing weapons.

Will the Dems pass the tests they will face?

The answer to the "price" question is that there is no political price Bush can pay for a surge or an Iran adventure.

The Dems need to get that straight. Too many people on the left have zero confidence that the Dems will stand up to an effort by Bush to start something in Iran.

It will not be a gentle, easy situation the Dems will face. Bush will hype a story. He will start the war with flyovers violating Iranian territory. He will get the Iranians to fire on drones and fighter jets that violate the Iranian airspace. He'll order the Navy to block Iranian ships and escalate, perhaps drawing the Iranians into firing the same ship to ship missiles Hizbollah used against the Israelis. Bush will make the escalation happen.

The Dems will be faced with dead Americans that Bush put in harms way to set this up.

The Dems will be faced with a very high pressure situation, quickly escalating, with Bush's people hysterically claiming the American people are in nuclear danger. Bush will use the same old bullshit he used in 2002 and 2003.

Or maybe the Israelis will start the craziness. Maybe they'll drop a bomb or do an air raid. This will be suicidal insanity, but there are insane Israelis, just like the insane Bush people here in the US. Neocons.

Will the Dems react the same spineless way they did then?

Will they determine a "price" for an adventure in Iran?

They better not. And if they don't intend to let it happen, they ought to be starting, the day the new congress begins, to be making it clear that the authorization the 2002 congress gave Bush to go to war is now nullified, rescinded and taken back.

That's one more item for their first 100 hours. Stop the surge. Stop the Iran war. They can do it. The price is their future as politicians. The price is the USA's future as a nation that retains any respect on this planet.