Is Iraq Out of Control: Key Republicans Think So

If you listen to President Bush and VP Dick Cheney, it's all good in Iraq. They'll tell you the insurgents are being defeated, albeit slowly, and the country is on its way to being a healthy, safe Democracy. Listen to key Democrats, such as Sen. Joe Biden (DE), and they'll tell you a very different story. But, now we're starting to see influential Republican lawmakers grow increasingly frustrated with this war (shush...be careful not use that word too much because, as Bush says, "it's not really a war." It just looks that way, with all the dead soldiers and all) and with the Bush administration. One such GOP'er, Rep. Walter Jones, (R-NC), who was so pro-war two years ago that he insisted that French fries sold in the Capitol be renamed "freedom fries" after the French government failed to support our invasion of Iraq, has come out against the war, demanding that Congress create an exit strategy for getting our troops home. The House did vote May 25 on such a measure, but the amendment failed by a 300-128 vote, with Jones being one of only five Republican's who voted for it. Either Jones has his eye on the re-election clock or his conscience has caught up with him, but he has become seriously anti-war. In his stirring speech May 25 at the House session, Jones explained "This is about a policy, that I believed when I voted 2 years ago to commit the troops that I was making my decision on facts. Since that time I have been very disappointed in what I have learned about the justification for going into Iraq." He continued with ". .. all this amendment does is just say that it is time for the Congress to meet its responsibility. The responsibility of Congress is to make decisions whether we should send our men and women to war or not send them to war. What we are saying here tonight is we think it is time for the Congress to begin, to start the debate and discussion of what the exit strategy is of this government . . ." Pretty amazing words coming from the head chef at the I Hate France Cafe. And then there's Rep. Curt Weldon
(R-PA), the highest ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, who said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others are misleading Americans about the number of functional Iraqi troops and said Bush should cut the Syrian and Iranian umbilical cords feeding the insurgency. "We don't want to raise the expectations of the American people prematurely," he said. Now, if only we could get our president and vice-president to be so logical and realistic. Andy