‘Defeat and retreat,’ ‘cut and run,’ and other GOP phrases we don’t hear much anymore

June 16, 2005

There has been a flurry of news this week about Republican lawmakers who, despite backing Bush going into the war in Iraq, are now anxious to see the president’s exit strategy. It seems to be causing something of a strain in the GOP ranks.

As bad news continues to emerge from Iraq and the U.S. detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, some Republicans are starting to edge away from the White House on its policies in the war on terror.

The strains were on display yesterday, at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Guantanamo Bay to address what Chairman Arlen Specter called the “crazy quilt” system that governs the treatment of about 520 suspected enemy combatants being held there. Mr. Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, called on Congress to set out rules.

More pointedly, Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, warned that if the administration and Congress and the courts can’t come up with an effective policy for Guantanamo Bay, “we’re going to lose this war if we don’t watch it.”

From Bush’s perspective, it gets worse. Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, who served in Bush’s cabinet in his first term, said he was “discouraged” by the lack of progress and the inability of the Pentagon to draw down U.S. forces. Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, said over the weekend that the administration had ignored his warnings about the insurgency. Rep. Curt Weldon, a Pennsylvania Republican who just returned from Iraq, said the administration is not being candid enough about the lack of progress in Iraq and must “come to grips” with the rising insurgency. Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.), who came up with “freedom fries” in 2003, is now offering a congressional resolution calling for the Bush administration to set specific goals for leaving Iraq. A similar measure is being sponsored in the Senate by Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), and it’s generating bi-partisan support.

Richard Kohn, a University of North Carolina professor who studies presidential-leadership issues in wartime, said Republicans seem to be telling the White House that they “aren’t willing to put up with this much longer.”

Seven, maybe eight, months ago, John Kerry was saying many of the same things Republicans in Congress are saying now. If memory serves, the White House insisted Kerry’s approach was “a clear signal of defeat and retreat to America’s enemies that will make the world a far more dangerous place.”

Funny, the White House isn’t saying that anymore.

Why do so many congressional Republicans hate freedom?

  • Congressional Republicans are beginning to think seriously about saving their own ass in the next election. And they didn’t get where they are by being ignorant of their constituents.

    Maybe, just maybe — in spite of the Democratic Party’s failure to connect with its real base in favor of celebrity endorsements and gifts from well-healed sugar daddies, and without a press to show the way (I doubt many read the excellent NY Times series on social class) — just maybe the blue-collar and middle-income public is beginning to wise up.

    It always has in the past (“It’s the economy, stupid”), but I feared it was no longer possible. Here’s hoping it’s still true. Now that I think about it, even Carville’s famous slogan is too abstract for our times. It’s not “the economy”, it’s your purse and wallet. And your children’s future.

  • Unfortunately, we lost before we started. There never was a way- short of total annihilation- to curb the middle-east. The Brits could have told us that (and probably did). This is what is so disgusting about the whole deal, that my friends are getting wounded and killed and fucked up psychologically for something that- in the end- doesn’t mean anything. We have already seen that the greatest seducer we have is our culture; a decadent, unstable, commercialized conglomerate. Hell, even in Iran, our mindset is slowly turning the young generations. THAT is our weapon, not our Army. THAT is what Osama was (is) fighting against. Our military actions only help those extremists.
    Look how cultures are slowly changing, despite the military. American Idol- actually, originally a Brit production- is permeating these countries. Muslims in some of these countries are seeing- and cheering for- women without veils, without any constraints. And these changes slowly run their way through society. Saudi Arabia bans camera phones and alcohol, but both are winding their way slowly into the society. Another generation (without military interaction), and they will be pervasive.
    All we do with our military action is slaughter our own troops, and reinforce the fundamenalists. For me, at least, that is very sad, and useless.

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