DEMOCRATS IGNORE VOTERS ON IRAQ

ALEXANDER COCKBURN, COUNTERPUNCH - This last Sunday Harry Reid, the
incoming Democratic majority leader in the US Senate, went on ABC's
Sunday morning show and declared that a hike in U.S. troops in Iraq is
okay with him. . .

Somewhat to their surprise the Democrats recaptured both the Senate and
the House. Then they went to work--to obliterate the mandate. The first
thing they did was reject Jack Murtha, the man who said "Quit Now" in
2005. They voted down Murtha as House majority leader and picked the
pro-war Steny Hoyer.

Then Nancy Pelosi, chose Silvestre Reyes as House Intelligence Committee
chairman. Reyes promptly told Newsweek, "We're not going to have
stability in Iraq until we eliminate those militias, those private
armies. We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in
Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize IraqI would say 20,000 to
30,000-for the specific purpose of making sure those militias are
dismantled, working in concert with the Iraqi military.". . .

Next, the Democrats in the Senate gave unanimous confirmation to Robert
Gates as defense secretary. Gates has a career record as one who slants
intelligence to suit his bosses' political agenda. . .

Next, House Democrats welcomed the Iraq Study Group report of James
Baker and Jim Hamilton by promptly reaffirming the Palestinian Terror
Bill 2006", written by AIPAC. . .

Then, on December 17 the Democrats' Senate leader, Harry Reid, said it
was okay with him to send more troops to Iraq. This was the same Sunday
morning that Colin Powell, appearing on CBS, said a troop increase
"cannot be sustained" and that the thousands of additional U.S. soldiers
sent into Baghdad since the summer had been unable to stabilize the city
and more probably could not tip the balance, Powell said.

Yesterday, it was instructive to go to the Democratic websites in the
wake of Reid's statement. Nothing on Daily Kos, nothing on Truthout,
nothing on any of them. They had many words about Republican
warmongering, about McCain's call for more troops. About Reid, one of
the top Democratic leaders, about the evolving Democratic
posture--nothing.

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn12192006.html

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