Look Closely – Do You See The Point?

I’ve been seeing a good deal about the war in Iraq and how Congress is up in arms about sending more troops to Iraq.

Do you see the point? I hope you do. The point is a simple one…

Re-Election.

First and foremost is the simple fact that the House and Senate have no impact on the decision to send more troops to Iraq. They don’t. It’s a small thing called the law. The press doesn’t see it that way. Congress doesn’t see it that way. Oh, they might mention it, as an aside… like “even though Congress can just suggest a course of action” but not all of the broadcasts put it out there.

It’s relatively simple: this is a military decision and unless it’s an Declaration of War, Congress doesn’t need to be consulted.

Right or wrong? Doesn’t matter in this case: it’s the way life is.

That leads to the question of “do the Congressmen and Senators know this?” Sure they do. They’re still debating it. And discussing it. And performing little acts of demonstrations in front of the media. Over. And over. And over again.

Wasting time? Yes. Doing all of this to look good in front of “the people”? Yes. Politicking? Yes – in other words, be it a red or blue Congress, it’s business as usual.

And that nugget brings me to Bush. Has anyone told him that he can’t run in 2008? I get the impression that he doesn’t know that. Or that he might think that he can just waive that law. I can’t tell… it just seems to me that he’s not acting like a man that is working in a temp position with no hope of a re-hire. The second term of a President should be when they throw caution to the wind and just do stuff. New stuff. Wild stuff. It’s one thing Clinton did do: he put a whole bunch of items in motion during his last four years. True, there wasn’t much of a plan of action, we couldn’t pay for any of them, and the Congress shot most of it down, but still: he tried. But anyway.

Debate, debate, debate. The media has spun it into a “Democrats are carrying pitchforks up the Hill and succeeding in all of their efforts” that “Republicans are so scared they’re voting like Democrats” and the Congress is completely united against the President and against sending more troops to Iraq. The bottom line? The vote… the vote that means nothing to any current process or plan of action, that has taken up hours in both houses of Congress, that has probably cost us more cash than the equipment that will be used to carry extra troops to Iraq – and they will go, since the vote has no impact… this vote? 12-9 against sending more troops. My math might be a little off but wouldn’t it take 23-0 to say the houses are united? Maybe 20-3? Better than 11-10, but yeesh, I don’t call 12-9 a house united… the majority is speaking, but the minority is still loud.

Telling you: its got nothing to do with troops, Iraq, oil, or anything else – it’s simply about re-election. You’d think the press would report that story…

That’s a terrific story – now we got newspaper people on the payroll don’t we, Tom?


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