Warner proposal on Iraq is being rejected

NY Times:

Senator John W. Warner, a lawmaker often admired for his demeanor and experience, has long wielded influence on military policy given his own years at the Pentagon and his tenure as the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

So when the Virginian, a senator from central casting who turns 80 next month, offered a bipartisan resolution opposing President Bush’s troop buildup in Iraq in more muted terms than one broadly backed by Democrats, people took notice. He appeared to have provided a center of gravity for lawmakers anxious about the war yet unwilling to challenge the White House too harshly.

But while Mr. Warner has won some support from within his party, he has also attracted unusually tough criticism from fellow Republicans who have suggested that he — a World War II veteran and former Navy secretary — is undercutting Mr. Bush, the new military command being installed in Iraq and the troops themselves.

It is a time of transition for Mr. Warner in the Senate. Not only are Republicans now in the minority, but he also lost the top Republican slot on the Armed Services Committee to John McCain of Arizona because of term limits and was not successful in efforts to win the top party seat on another panel. In addition, his fellow Republican, George Allen, lost his reelection bid in Virginia to a Democrat, Senator Jim Webb.

So while Mr. Warner fights to stay relevant in the Iraq debate, he has fewer tools at his disposal even as he considers whether to run for re-election next year.

What some Republicans have said in recent days about Mr. Warner has been particularly harsh.

“It is clearly not an act of leadership,” said Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who joined two of his colleagues Wednesday in dismissing Mr. Warner’s proposal as they sought to hold off a Senate repudiation of the president’s plan.

“To offer nonbinding resolutions which encourage our enemies and undermine our allies and deflate the morale of our troops is, to me, the worst of all possible worlds,” said Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas.

Mr. Warner’s approach has also caused a policy rift with Senators McCain and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, two Republicans he has often worked closely with on military matters and joined last year in confronting Mr. Bush over the treatment of terrorism detainees.

“John and I have been friends for more than 30 years, and we just disagree on this,” said Mr. McCain, who is arguing for time to let the Bush plan work. “But he has held these concerns for a long time.”

...

Sen. Cornyn has it right, as does Sen. DeMint. All of these resolutions in the Senate on the surge clearly give the enemy hope. If we want to win we have to make this enemy hopeless. Only when he is hopeless will he accept the defeat we are inflicting on him. The war continues now only because he has not accepted his defeat. What these resolutions suggest is that some of the senators think our cause is hopeless. That is an utterly ridiculous proposition that has been marketed by several Democrats who are desperate for defeat for their own political purposes.

The Washington Times report on DeMint and Cornyn's statements is even more emphatic.

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"This resolution is a resolution of defeat and disgrace," said Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican who, as a member of the House, voted in 2002 for the war.
"There's no other way it could come out," Mr. DeMint said of the two resolutions that have been authored. "That is the choice that they're making. That is the decision they're making because we know if we withdraw and leave this to the Iraqis when they're not ready, that we will lose all."
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Sen. John Cornyn, Texas Republican, was not serving in the Senate for the vote authorizing the war but has been an ardent defender of it. He said Congress is sending mixed messages to the troops, to voters and to the world with a "no confidence" vote that carries no force.
"We can't claim to support the troops and not support their mission," he said in a floor speech yesterday. "If we don't support the mission, we shouldn't be passing nonbinding resolutions. We should be doing everything in our power to stop it."
Instead, Mr. Cornyn said, "we should send them the message that, yes, we believe you can succeed and it's important to our national security that you do." He has been drawing up a resolution to do that.
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I find the Senate resolutions against the surge completely disgusting. I will not support contributions to anyone who supports giving hope to the enemy.

Bloomberg reports that while Republicans have rejected Warner's proposal the Democrats and RINO Hagel have embraced it since it was clear that their proposal did not have the votes. The Biden resolution has apparently been cast aside by Democrat leaders.