Bench the benchmarks

The network news tonight said that Harry Reid is going to negiotiate a compromise war funding bill with "benchmarks" but no timetable. They predict he will lose a lot of democratic votes but gain enough republican ones to pass the bill.

Don't bother with the benchmarks. As noted before in this blog, after two years of "when the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down," the administration has given up on the Iraqis standing up. They are not going to "stand up", because they don't want us there.

Bush also said that success is not 'no violence', and that any lessening of sectarian violence will be viewed as success. What a boneheaded statement! Does he not see that this will incite more sectarian violence? Since he was the one who said "Bring 'em on", he probably does.

The right direction for the democrats to pursue is a stronger timetable, not meaningless benchmarks. The democrats have given Bush his funding. Keep passing stronger bills, and if the great hero keeps vetoing, well, its on him, and on his Republican lackeys if they keep upholding his veto.

Or maybe its better to pass nothing. Bush had his chance to get more scratch for his war, and he didn't take it. Tough.

What about the troops who could be stuck in Iraq without any funding? Hmmm. That's a toughie. Maybe they should have thought about that before they signed on the dotted line. Kids, think about that when the recruiters come calling. Also, a lot of the surge funding is going to contractors, exmilitary guys who couldn't get enough, or at least think they could take a bit more for a quarter mil per year. Let Blackwater and KBR pay their airfare home.