According to the Washington Times efforts by anti-war congressional Democrats to force a withdrawal from Iraq are running out of gas.
An antiwar Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee said the party lost momentum in the war debate and later this month will likely again fail to force a U.S. troop pullout from Iraq.
The member did not want to be identified discussing leadership shortcomings.
Top Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, have responded by raising the pitch of the war debate since returning to Washington this week.
Along with the failures of the Iraqi government to meet Washington imposed benchmarks, Democrats had planned to highlight a report on Iraqi security forces delivered yesterday by an independent commission led by retired Marine Gen. James L. Jones. Unfortunately, the commission's report did not recommend a pullout. Quite the opposite.
Commission member John Hamre, president of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told a House panel that continued U.S. military presence in Iraq safeguards the United States' many strategic interests in the Middle East.
"Every one of those interests would be seriously diminished if we have to crawl out or run out of Iraq," he told the Armed Services Committee.
When face with unpleasant realities -- particularly this most unpleasant reality that we are succeeding in Iraq -- Democrats revert to form.
Democrats have attempted to discredit Gen. Petraeus ahead of his delivering the administration's war assessment.
[Rep. Lynn Woolsey, California Democrat and co-founder of the antiwar Out of Iraq Caucus] said Gen. Petraeus' report would be "packaged spin" from the White House, echoing early criticism of the report from Democratic leaders.
Mr. McGovern also took a pre-emptive swipe at the progress reports.
"What the president has to say doesn't carry much water here," Mr. McGovern said. "I don't trust the president on this war any more. I know those are strong words. I just don't [trust him]."
Democratic leaders repeatedly refer to the report as the "Bush report" and voiced skepticism that it would be an honest assessment.
Democrats, having hitched their political fortunes to an American defeat in Iraq, declared General Petraeus' troop surge a failure before it began, and now dismiss his report before it's delivered. I wonder if any of them will have the nerve to call the General a liar to his face when he testifies before them on September 11th. It's just a few days away.
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