News Review
Sunday Talkshow Review
Wednesday, April 18, 2007 5:49 PM
From time to time, I write reviews for one reason or another. I keep them short and sweet. This is from last Sunday.
Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace
4/15/07
This part of Fox News Sunday is an interview with Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
This discussion was about the continuing congressional battle over Iraq with the two most prominent voices of that battle, Senators Levin and Graham. The discussion began over the alleged meeting this coming week where ”congressional leaders sit down with the president to discuss the war funding bill while House and Senate conferees try to work out what they’ll actually send to the president.” The discussion also included the upcoming promised veto of that spending bill.
Senator Levin was asked what the Democrats will send the president either before or after the veto. He stated, “Well, we are going to send him, first of all, hopefully, a very strong bill which would say that we’re going to begin to reduce troops in four months as a way of telling the Iraqi leadership that the open-ended commitment is over, not just rhetorically but, in fact, to try to force them to take responsibility for their own country.” He then said in so many words that they will ride out the veto and then present something that would be signed. He mentioned that they would recommend items from the Iraqi Study Group should the veto not be overridden. (Note: I have read and studied the ISG and it said several times that a timed withdrawal of troops “is not recommended.)
Sen. Graham was then asked what he thought of Senator Levin’s statements in regards to time-tabled withdrawals and benchmarked compromises. In his own words, “Well, number one, the president will veto the legislation in its current form, and he should. If you really want to support the troops, don’t cut their legs out from under them. We sent Petraeus off 81-0. He got unanimously approved by those voting in the Senate. He had specific game plan in mind. Timetables, timelines for withdrawing troops, benchmarks that give your enemy a road map of how to drive us out of Iraq are bad ideas. These are congressional micromanagement of the war that will have short and long-term effects. The president will veto this bill. He should veto it.”
The interview went back and forth with the he said they said we said rhetoric and it about made me ill. The postulating by the Senator from Michigan was sickening. The seemingly “trying to play nice” from the Senator from South Carolina was equally sickening. The first half of this interview was pretty much all I could handle.
My own take of this is skewed in many areas. First of all, I remember the speeches by the president and I also remember the “opposition” agreeing. I remember the unity this country had just a scant 5 years ago. It seems that the closer we get to an election, the more distant the two parties become, dividing the nation. I remember hearing the president telling the country – the world – Iraq – before the surge, that this was NOT an open-ended event. The “opposition” “forgot” to hear that one.
Secondly, I am a combat veteran. I have served under every President since Carter, including Carter and I distinctly remember that the Democratic Presidents and Congress were NEVER friendly towards the military and very weak on National Security. I will not trust them or adhere to their inflamed emotionality and useless rhetoric. Either support the troops or don’t. Just be honest about it.
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