The effort to stop the Iraq war seems to be falling apart. Democratic leaders in Congress are trying to extend funds without incurring the wrath of war opponents, polls show the American people recognize the improvements on the ground in Iraq, and now an Iraq war veteran and leader of the anti-war movement says that that the organizations which claim to be fighting to end the war are really just Democrat schills. The veteran in question is John Bruhns, whom I wrote about when he quit the anti-war group AAEI over a month ago. Bruhns was a Marine Corps reservist on September 11, who has said that he switched to the Army infantry in the hope of being sent to serve in Afghanistan. Instead, he found himself in Iraq. After being honorably discharged, Bruhns eventually came to serve as the leading spokesperson for Americans Against Escalation in Iraq. He recently left the group ‘on good terms.’ But his recent piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer–entitled “The Anti-War Phonies“–hasn’t received the attention it deserves. In it, he says that the anti-war lobby is a front for an effort to tear down Republicans, even as Democrats make no real effort to end the war:
Bruhns is right that many involved in this effort care only about doing political damage to Republicans. The improved security situation in Iraq, combined with the shift by the Pentagon to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq, has substantially lowered the temperature on the issue of the war. The Democratic presidential candidates are gradually changing their tone on the war as well. The only reason for Democrats to continue to force votes on Iraq is to score cheap political points. The question is whether it will come back to haunt them. And to think that Democrats complain that Republicans have politicized the war.
