Arguing Against the Imaginary

Medal of Honor recipient and MSNBC Military Analyst Jack Jacobs makes a familiar argument in favor of the President:

The other principle focus of the president was that precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be a disaster for both the United States and Iraq. He’s right about that too...Bush is correct to castigate those who argue for bringing everyone home immediately, because it would be bad for Iraq and dangerous for our troops.

It's worth mentioning that exactly none of the leading Democratic Presidential candidates advocate immediate withdrawal, and that the legislation proposed in Congress to end the war doesn't either.

Barack Obama calls for "(1) a reduction in the number of U.S. troops; (2) a time frame for a phased withdrawal; (3) the Iraqi government to make progress on forming a political solution; (4) improved reconstruction efforts to restore basic services in Iraq; and (5) engaging the international community, particularly key neighboring states and Arab nations, to become more involved in Iraq." That may not be good policy, but it's certainly not precipitous or immediate withdrawal.

Hillary Clinton proposes "legislation to end authority for the war in Iraq. The legislation will propose October 11, 2007 -- the five year anniversary of the original resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq -- as the expiration date for that resolution. The President would be required to come to Congress to seek new authority. Following deauthorization, Senator Clinton would not support any new legislation that did not start to remove our troops from the middle of this sectarian civil war." Again, maybe not great policy, but not the imaginary bogeyman of immediate withdrawal, either.

Even proud liberal John Edwards advocates only "complete withdrawal of all combat troops in 12 to 18 months." That is, for the record, three times as long as some of the War's advocates said it would take to prosecute the whole war.

As admirable as it may be that the President stands steadfast, wouldn't it be more admirable if he were standing steadfast against an argument that someone was actually making?

Comments

[Pursuit]

I'm sorry, I don't see anywhere in the quote you provided that the guy was limiting his comments to just three Democrats. Surely you aren't suggesting that there aren't any influential Dems calling for immediate withdrawl. Hell, even the idiot Warner has suggested we leave pronto, so it seems that it is important that the case be made.

[Tom]

Warner has advocated 5,000 troops withdrawn by December. That's hardly "pronto".