Russ Feingold was on Countdown tonight and what he had to say about the Iraq Study Group's report speaks for itself. After reading a few excerpts, Keith asked:
But hasn't that already happened, and do you think the panel missed how much the war in Iraq has been a drain on the global fight against terror?
Well they sure did, Keith. I mean, I feel like I've been watching the preview of a, or a premiere of a blockbuster movie in Washington. But the fact is, this commission was composed apparently entirely of people who did not have the judgement to oppose this Iraq war in the first place. And did not have the judgement to realize that it was not a wise move in the fight against terrorism. So that's who's doing this report.
And he was just getting started...
Feingold continued:
And then I looked at the list of who testified before them. There's virtually no one who opposed the war in the first place, virtually no one who's been really calling for a different strategy that goes for a global approach in the war on terrorism. So this is really a Washington inside job. And it shows, not in the description of what's happened. That's fairly accurate. But it shows in the recommendations. It's been called a classic Washington compromise. It does not do the job of extricating us from Iraq in a way that we can deal with the issues in Southeast Asia, in Afghanistan and in Somalia, which are every bit as important as what is happening in Iraq.
So this report does not do the job and it's because it was not composed of a real representative group of Americans, who believe what the American people showed in the election, that is, that it is time for us to have a timetable to bring the troops out of Iraq.
Keith then asked:
So, bottomline, would you agree with this? That the country's focus, that the goverment's focus should be on getting us out as quickly as possible and, uh, is there anything in the report that hastens that?
Feingold begins by say that there are some good recommendations, but you'll notice they all have one thing in common...they are all a repudiation of Bush's policies:
- making sure that we have more tranlators
- we must budget properly for this war
- talking to countries that aren't our allies
But the problem is, the bottomline here is, what are we going to do so we can allocate our resources around the world, to the battle against terrorism? This report keeps us in Iraq. This report keeps our resources there...
And we are losing ground to the Taliban in Afghanistan, which I remember is where the attacks came from on 9/11.
So this thing fundamentally continues the ultimate mistake in Washington, of looking at the world through the prism of Iraq, instead of looking at the threat from al Qaeda as a global problem.
Keith asks, is the report "better than nothing?" and Feingold responds:
...the main point, which is how are we going to get our troops out of Iraq and not continue to have them in a situation that doesn't make sense, that isn't seriously dealt with. We lost ten more troops in Iraq just today, Keith. How many more days are we going to put up with, in this country, of people dying in a situation that this report indicates isn't working? When you make a mistake, you should stop making the mistake. And this report misses the point.
Then Keith asks,
Where is the avenue of exit?
The answer is to have a time frame, clearly communicated to the Iraqi government...but we're not going to continue to have 140,000 troops trying to stop a civil war...it is the only way to prevent the grotesque losses that are occuring with regard to American troops, our military readiness and most importantly, the damage to the national security of the American people.
Feingold finished by saying:
...we need a real timetable to bring the troops out and I send that message both to the Republicans and Democrats; the American people spoke in the elections. They want our troops out of Iraq. And you know what? They are right. That's the right thing to do. And Democrats and Republicans need to get serious about this right now.
This doesn't need any commentary, except, what Russ said.
Update: MO Blue provided the link to the video on Crooks & Liars.