The War At Home On Iraq Policy Begins

Today Democrats in the Senate got down to work, with the unassailable Jim Webb in the forefront:

“Now in the fifth year of ground operations in Iraq, this deck of cards has come crashing down, and it’s landing heavily on the backs of soldiers and Marines who have been deployed again and again while the rest of the country sits back and debates Iraq as an intellectual or emotional exercise,” Webb said. “We’ve reached the point where we can no longer allow the ever-changing nature of this Administration’s operational policies to drive the way our troops are being deployed. In fact, the reverse is true. The availability of our troops should be the main determinant of how ground operations should be conducted.”

This is a rerun of Jack Murtha's "readiness strategy," which would have worked if House Democrats were committed to it. And it's only one of a series of proposals which will be attached to the defense authorization bill. There will also be a return of the Feingold-Reid legislation to cut off funding after a date certain, Levin-Reed to set a withdrawal date, a de-authorization of the resolution for war submitted by Hillary Clinton, and the Salazar-Domenici "Let's pretend we're doing something" bill, which unsurprisingly has the greatest chance of full passage:

How It Would Work: Sens. Ken Salazar and Domenici put together a bill that would commit the Bush administration to implementing the recommendations of last year's bipartisan Iraq commission led by James Baker and Lee Hamilton. Though the commission had over 70 points of advice, functionally, the strategy set by the commission looks somewhat similar to Levin-Reed. While it wouldn't call for a troop pullout after April 1, 2008, the commission did recommend that the U.S. end its combat mission by then, leaving U.S. troops to train Iraqi security forces, fight al-Qaeda and protect themselves.

Likelihood of Passage: If it gets into the bill, its chances look very good. The Salazar-Domenici plan is the only truly bipartisan potential amendment. It is the plan most likely to attract Republican votes, since it doesn't embrace withdrawal. And as Bush has pivoted lately to embracing the Iraq Study Group after initially scorning it, the White House will find Salazar-Domenici the most palatable measure on offer in the senate.

Political Purpose: An acrimony-free bipartisan abandonment of the war without an abandonment of the U.S. commitment to Iraq. Quite possibly the best option for the GOP to argue that it's winding down the war without repudiating it, because it would allow GOP senators to back away from combat operations in Iraq without committing themselves to withdrawal. While Democrats wouldn't get withdrawal from Salazar-Domenici, they would be able to claim that they successfully won over many Republicans -- perhaps leading to a bipartisan withdrawal bill during the next legislative fight.

I highly recommend Spencer Ackerman's rundown of the legislative options.

In addition, Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is moving swiftly to make this summer hell for wayward Republicans and to move the nation on a course to ending our involvement in this occupation. It's a coalition of some of the strongest organizations in the progressive movement. It's already impacting things in Kentucky.

The public is unwilling to let the Congress off the hook for this for much longer. Republicans clearly sense that the walls are caving in. The goals for anyone who wants to end the war is to get out the messaging on that sham Salazar bill. Because that'll be the safety valve where Republicans will flow. If that's not seen as good enough, the pressure can be racheted up (or maybe as a prelude for the next fight, although my sense is that nobody in the public wants a next fight).

Meanwhile, we have an embassy where people are getting sick from the formaldehyde smell that is a symtpom of the construction problems there. Just thought you'd like to know. Oh, and this guy warns of great chaos if we leave Iraq. Chaos like the stuff that happened this weekend, I guess:

Mr. Zebari was speaking after a violent weekend in which more than 220 people were killed in Iraq, including 150 by a truck bomb in one of the deadliest single attacks since the American invasion in March 2003 [...]

Mr. Zebari’s comments came after some Sunni and Shiite leaders called on Iraqi civilians to take up arms to defend themselves, amid frustration that Iraqi security forces had failed to halt the deadly suicide attacks.

Good thing it's not so CHAOTIC now.