Funding the Surge: Dems Deal with the Devil
January 10, 2007
This essay is a commentary on an essay by Robert Reich entitled “Why Dems Won’t Stop Bush’s ‘Surge’ in Iraq.” You can read Reich’s essay in the archives of his blog.
Robert Reich may be the first political insider to acknowledge in public what has unsettled progressives since Bush first mentioned his surge strategy in December. It took Reich but four paragraphs to paint a landscape of the moral morass that may entrap America for the next four years or longer. The issues he raises are worthy of far more consideration than the time it takes to read his short piece. If Americans don’t make the right choice for the right reasons, they will be debating these same issues until long after the last American soldier comes back from Iraq.
In sum, it comes down to this: Republicans will spill blood in Iraqi streets in order to plunder, and Democrats will let them in order to avoid political blame for the likely mess no matter what we do.
The logic of the Democratic leadership is clearly that of choosing the lesser evil: give the Republicans the means to fail so that Democrats are not blamed for denying them the means to win.
The problem with that logic is that the life or death consequences of both parties’ positions are identical. The problem with choosing lesser evils is that you always pick evil.
Brad Kennedy is the author of “HEROES or Something,” and a contributor to Intervention Magazine.