Four years into the Iraq war, all sides in the bitterdebate agree that President Bush’s “troop surge” plan represents the final drop of American patience for the war. If Iraqis fail to control the violence, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, “The American taxpayer has a reasonable expectation that we will bring our people home.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has steadfastly supported the mission, said Republicans’ patience is nearly exhausted, too.
“This is the last chance for the Iraqis,” the Kentucky Republican said in an interview with The Examiner. “The last chance for them to step up and demonstrate that they can do their part to save their country.”
It’s a rare point of agreement between the Democrats who long ago turned adamantly against the war and the Republicans who say they remain opposed to withdrawing troops before the job is done.
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Failed efforts by Congress in recent weeks to condemn Bush’s proposal to send reinforcements to Iraq have been a political diversion, McConnell said. The “real bill,” he said, is the one the House takes up this week to continue funding the war. If it passes the House, the Senate will begin debating it as early as next week.
Republicans oppose provisions in that $124 billion spending bill that set timetables for withdrawing U.S. forces, even if benchmarks for success are met. Timetables, Republicans say, signal to the enemy how much longer to continue their mayhem before seizing victory.
Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott said he has “no confidence in Congress to set time limits and start mandating that a certain number of troops be withdrawn based on conditions we determine.”
That said, the Mississippi Republican added that Republican patience — and thus Congress’ patience — for Bush’s troop increase will last “months, not years.”
“At some point, you got to say to them, ‘Congratulations, Saddam is dead,’ ” Lott said. “We brought Baghdad under control. You folks got to decide whether you just want to kill each other forever or have a real government and peace and freedom and democracy.”
Democrats like to remind Republicans that they had the opposite view of precise timelines for withdrawal during President Clinton’s involvement in Bosnia.
“Many of the same Republican leaders to plead about time frames were saying we need an exit strategy in Bosnia before we go,” Hoyer said.
Anyway, Democrats say, Republicans send the same message to insurgents and Iraqis as timetables do when they say that their patience will run dry in months rather than years.
“That may be,” Lott replied. “But at some point, they have to take control themselves.”
