WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled a Democratic proposal ordering troop withdrawals from Iraq in a showdown that capped an all-night debate on the war.

The 52-47 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to cut off debate under Senate rules. It was a sound defeat for Democrats who say the U.S. military campaign, in its fifth year and requiring 158,000 troops, cannot tame the sectarian violence in Iraq.

Well, at least partially, I have to agree with the Dems, and I DO mean partially, we may not be able to fully quell the sectarian violence in Iraq with the 158K troops we have in place, personally, if I was the guy in charge, I’d be asking for at least another 200K troops and a seriously lessened set of ROE’s, and with that I would feel fairly confident that I had the necessary numbers and backing to actually get the job done as long as I wasn’t harnesses by the political correctness that has run rampant in our current administration…

Putting the numbers and opinions aside for a minute, this story poses a few questions that I feel I must ask; isn’t the Senate supposed to be Dem controlled?? Weren’t the Dems going to show the nation what they could do with their 1st 100 hours thing?? Weren’t they going to take George W. Bush to task and get this Iraq thing straightened right out and totally under control?? With their Dem controlled Senate and Congress??

Out of curiosity, what happened to that Dem POWER PLAY that was talked up so much??

“We have to get us out of a middle of a civil war” said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., who chairs the Foreign Relations Committee. A political solution must be found “so when we leave Iraq, we don’t just send our children home, we don’t have to send our grandchildren back.”

And again I am forced to at least partially agree with a Dem, we DO need to get us out from the middle of their civil war, but NOT by doing it the Dems way, passing some lame cut and run legislation is NOT going to be what settles the situation in Iraq…

We are at least somewhat responsible FOR this little civil war in Iraq, we ousted Saddam and since then, we, and by WE I am referring to our President and his administration, have grossly mismanaged the effort in Iraq, thus the suicide bombings and insurgency…

Bush was warned that the insurgency could, and probably would take place but he chose to ignore that bit of advice as well, simply because he saw himself in that suit of shining armor and was totally convinced that the Iraqis would welcome us a liberators after we rid them of Saddam…

And make no mistake about it, I know that Saddam was a vile, evil, murderous thug and an all around despicably bad human being, and those were his good traits, but this kind of crap, a civil war, didn’t take place in Iraq as long as Saddam was in power, he wouldn’t allow it, and he would have had this civil war nonsense put down almost as soon as it started, and yes, he would have used the most brutal tactics imaginable, but he wouldn’t have had a civil war raging in HIS Iraq, and in retrospect, maybe WE should have done the same thing…

I want to make this crystal clear for my new readers, I am NOT an anti-war moonbat, I believe that if we need to fight a war then by God let’s fight a war, my hangup is this, I never have believed that Iraq was a place that we needed to fight a war, at least NOT at the precise time we did go into Iraq to depose Saddam in the cause of making America more secure, by uh, finding WMD’s, um, wait, removing, I mean, taking the, oh to hell with it, we went to to GET Saddam…

When we went to Iraq, and divided our already less than full compliment of troops out of Afghanistan, we signaled to al-Qaida, and the world, that we didn’t really know what we were doing, we had al-Qaida, the Taliban and their leaders all but destroyed and what was left of them was on the run, and right then is when we needed to concentrate our efforts the most, in Afghanistan and on the border of Pakistan as we wiped al-Qaida’s leadership from the face of this earth…

Now, Afghanistan is flaring back up, our government tells us al-Qaida Likely to Attack US, Intel Says and the FBI says Iraqis Being Smuggled Across the Rio Grande…

We have terrorists in place, in this nation, right now, they ARE here, and have been here for a very long time, of this I am quite certain, I am speaking facts and not speculation or gut feelings, and I have to look at the presidency once again and wonder WHY this wasn’t addressed on the morning of 9-12-01 and I have to ask WHY our borders weren’t sealed, right then, not later, not after more infiltration had taken place, and in my mind that issue is one of several failures from the Bush administration, and remains as the major reason Bush has a 28% approval rating in spite of the U.S. having the strongest economy in our history…

As long as our borders are wide open to a Walk Right In Invasion by anyone willing to take the chance of being confronted by a Border Patrol that has been all but emasculated by the legal system of THIS nation, I will continue to hammer George W. Bush for his failed overall leadership and misguided priorities…

We must secure THIS nation and protect OUR people before we place the interests of other nations at the top of the list, America 1st… ALWAYS…

Full Story Here:
Senate Scuttles Troop Withdrawal Bill

EDIT TO ADD:
And in the words of the incomparable La Shawn Barber

“Fighting the so-called war on terror and securing the southern border are forever linked, despite what politicians say. American men and woman are dying in the Middle East for “democracy,” while the enemy sneaks in the back door here at home.”

Seems like this is VERY close to what I have been hammering on for quite a while now… Great line La Shawn, I had to use it as a quote…

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