September 20, 2007--Portrait In Cowardice

I needed to take a break from all this infernal typing and, seeking distraction, I went upstairs to turn on the TV hoping there would be some OJ breaking news. Unfortunately, I had left the set on the Senate C Span channel and, wouldn’t you know it, Senator Warner had the floor and was explaining how though on Friday he had indicated he would support Senator Webb’s amendment to require that troops have as much “dwell” time at home as they serve on the ground, he was now going to oppose the measure. You know, he was offering a sort of a I-was-for-it before-I-was-against-it kind of explanation. Intrigued by how this senator’s senator was going to square this political circle, though I needed a break from this maddening stuff, I couldn’t help myself and stayed tuned. Yes, he said, after his seventh of eighth trip to Iraq he came home and made a speech, the Record will show, in which he indicated that things were not going as well as he had hoped and that it might be necessary soon for the president to do some course changing. Then after his eighth or ninth trip, he made another speech, again as the Record will show, in which he recommended to the president that as a gesture signalling a move toward a new strategy he should bring 5,000 troops home before Christmas (or Hanukkah of Kwanza, though he didn’t mention these). The president at the time thanked the senator for his “helpful advice.” (Check the Washington Post story linked below to see if I’m getting this right.) Since that time, he continued, Senator Webb, who “knows more about these matters than I,” drafted an amendment, which he supported, that calls for a new policy in regard to troop rotation and includes the not-so-hidden agenda that would amount to a de facto force reduction because, if troops are guaranteed equal time at home between rotations, troop strength will be reduced since the military does not have enough soldiers to maintain the current 160,000 much less the pre-surge 130,000. But, the senator orated, he has had a change of mind. I am quoting from memory—“My esteemed colleagues, you might imagine why. Well, there are two reasons. I just returned from my tenth trip to the region [why is it that Congressmen can’t stop themselves from compulsively talking about their trips to Iraq—could it be to show how intrepid they are, that they, from the Green Zone with helicopters circling overhead to protect them, are sharing the sacrifice and danger?], and while on that tenth trip I saw with my own eyes that we are making military progress; and, second [and by far most important], the president has taken my advice. Why just last week he announced that, as I recommended, he would be bringing home by Christmas those 5,000 troops. So they can be with their families.” And though the senator didn’t say this, he implied: Since the president listened to me, to me, I have accomplished my goal, my conscience is clear and I will now return to my familiar role—occasionally raising some questions about our policy over there but ultimately supporting my president. So there he was, 8o years old, the very picture of a senator right out of Central Casting, a veteran of combat in both the Second World War and Korea, an unimpeachable friend of the military and the “fighting man,” a five-term member of the Senate, a former chairman of the Armed Services Committee, an widely-esteemed senator who is about to retire from Congress and thus one would think would feel liberated from the politics; here he was, someone who knows that George W. Bush & Co. are a pack of fools (“I knew George H. W. Bush and he’s no George H. W. Bush”), yet knowing all this, even he couldn’t keep it up for something as limited in effect as the Webb amendment--limited since he and everyone else knew if it passed the president would have vetoed the bill before the ink dried. John Warner, one of Elizabeth Taylor’s exes, with all that senatorial hair, bespoke suits, and fabled diction, you should be ashamed of yourself. I always thought it would take more than a president blowing in your ear to make you fold up like a cheap camera. But once again I’ve been proven wrong. PS—As you know, the amendment failed to get the 60 votes required.