Coleman throws in towel, Klobuchar supports our troops

Indeed, “with the arrival of General Petraeus we have changed course.” We’ve pushed the violence out of Baghdad and into Mosul, Diyala and Kirkuk. Oh wait, unless you count the ever-present violence in Baghdad, where 11 people were killed including 3 soldiers on Wednesday, and then we have… no change. (And they wonder on Fox & Friends why McCain’s campaign is going up in smoke.)

But let’s turn to someone with first hand experience:

Salah Muhamad Amin, a retired army general from Baghdad said: “To be fair to the government, security has slightly improved since the implementation of the surge; however, it is not only about security.

“I am preparing myself to leave Baghdad, because I am not able to cope with day-to-day requirements. I am 70-years old and my wife is 62. We do not have enough electricity and we cannot tolerate the hot weather any more.”

He said his family has to daily manoeuvre through army checkpoints and barricades until they reach petrol stations where the queues can run for several blocks - all in the hope of securing fuel for the generators.

He said: “We are fed up with having to risk our lives every time we need to go and get our pensions, so I will sell my house and leave to a country where I can live normally.”

So, what small change has come, at least to Baghdad, has brought a new set of problems. Did this administration cabal foresee and account these changes? Of course not. We’re talking about the Bushes here. Even McCain admits that if we give the surge more time, he doubts that we can be successful there (”even if I could convince Americans to give General Petraeus the time he needs to determine whether we can prevail, that we will prevail in Iraq.”). So, we’re just supposed to continue shedding blood and spending $12 Billion a month (I hope the grandkids have their charge cards handy!) for how long? Almost nobody knows, because nobody has planned for anything in Iraq. I say almost nobody, as Bush is just running out the clock, and “AQI” is prepared for this to go on forever. That is their plan.

Would that we had a plan for winning the war in Iraq. We haven’t from the beginning, and we still don’t. What do you expect from a presnit who, to repeat your test of Middle Eastern IQ, can’t name the capital of Diyala (or have you forgotten that Bush didn’t even know who Pervez Musharraf was prior to January 20, 2001)?

In the end, this vote was a good move for the Democrats. We now have, for the record, the names of 52 senators who support the troops, and the 47 who, at the cost of our soldiers lives, support the failures of the Bush cabal. That alone is worth the price of admission. The icing on the cake is the “get into Congress free” card that Norm Coleman just handed Al Franken.