Dems still looking to find a way to retreat from Iraq

NY Times:

Trying to bridge party divisions on the eve of a Senate debate, leading Democrats called Monday for American troops to begin pulling out of Iraq this year. They avoided setting a firm timetable for withdrawal but argued that the Bush administration's open-ended commitment to the war would only prevent Iraqis from moving forward on their own.

Coming the week after partisan and often angry House debate over the war, the Senate proposal, a nonbinding resolution, was carefully worded to deflect any accusations that the Democrats were "cutting and running," as their position has been depicted by Republicans. The Democrats behind the measure did not even use the word "withdrawal," and talked about how to guarantee "success" for Iraq, not about any failures of the war.

"The administration's policy to date — that we'll be there for as long as Iraq needs us — will result in Iraq's depending upon us longer," said Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, who has been designated by the Democratic leadership to present the party's strategy on Iraq. "Three and a half years into the conflict, we should tell the Iraqis that the American security blanket is not permanent."

The resolution was cobbled together by moderate Democrats trying to smooth over differences within the party. The minority leadership has tried to distance itself from a proposal by Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts setting a mandatory deadline for American combat troops to be out of Iraq by the end of this year, a limit that Mr. Kerry modified only marginally on Monday. Some Republican lawmakers and the White House pointed to that proposal last week in attacking Democrats as inconsistent and weak on national security.

Mr. Levin's resolution did nothing to stop the Republicans' ridicule, with Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky dismissing it in a Fox News interview as "cut and jog."

"The last thing you want to do when you have the terrorists on the run is give them notice that you're going to leave," said Mr. McConnell, the Senate's No. 2 Republican.

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Trying to rationalize the divisions in the Democrat party on the use of force is a pretty hopeless task. When a Marine Corps Division was surrounded in Korea near the Chosin Reservoir and had to break out to get back to the sea, a reporter asked Gen. Smith if the Marines were retreating. He responded, "No. We're just attacking in a different direction." That is what you do when you are surrounded, but it cannot explain how the Democrats are retreating from the word "retreat," or its political equivalent, "cut and run." Whether the shade of lipstick for that pig is yellow or not, it is still a pig.

The Democrat postion is only rational if they want to lose the war in Iraq.