Attorney General Asks Congress For Official War Declaration
Attorney General Michael Mukasey is urging Congress to officially declare war on Al-Qaeda so that the United States can hold terror suspects for as long the conflict lasts.
Mukasey recommended the official war declaration be made part of a package of legislative proposols currently working there way through Congress that will establish a legal process for prosecuting detainees.
“Any legislation should acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us,” Mukasey said in a speech to the American Enterprise Institute.
“Congress should reaffirm that for the duration of the conflict the United States may detain as enemy combatants those who have engaged in hostilities or purposefully supported al Qaeda, the Taliban and associated organizations,” he said.
New legislation should also prohibit courts from ordering a detainee to be released within the United States. It should protect secrets in court hearings, ensure that soldiers are not taken from the battlefield to testify and prevent challenges from delaying detainee trials, he said.
As usual, Democrats balked at the idea and said such measures would “avert legal oversight” and “stack the deck” in favor of the administration.
The reaction by Democrats is par for the course in the war on terror. They don’t look at any piece of legislation in terms of whether it might help defeat Al-Qaeda, but whether or not it helps George Bush. Even if not acting weakens our ability to protect America, that’s okay with Democrats as long as it sticks W. in the eye.
Not only is that kind of attitude petty and despicable, but it’s also incredibly dangerous. “Stack the deck?” I guess that’s supposed to mean that Democrats want to give the terrorists every opportunity to go free, and make it as difficult as possible for the U.S. to hold them.
I think Democrats have forgotten who’s side they’re on, or at least supposed to be on.
Dems in Denial: Murtha Dismisses Progress in Iraq
John Murtha apparently couldn’t find any troops to accuse of murder today, so he went back to his standard talking points.
House Democrats’ point man in the war-funding showdown with the White House today dismissed U.S. military gains in Iraq and vowed to tighten the purse strings until President Bush accepts a pullout plan.
“Look at all the people that have been displaced, all the [lost] oil production, unemployment, all those type of things,” said Rep. John P. Murtha, chairman of Appropriations defense subcommittee. “We can’t win militarily.”
The Pennsylvania Democrat conceded violence was down dramatically and some normalcy restored on Iraq’s streets, but he said U.S. victory remains unattainable as long as Baghdad fails to pass national reconciliation laws.
“To change the political law, it doesn’t seem to me you need the military stability,” Mr. Murtha told reporters on Capitol Hill.
The dim view of U.S. military progress in Iraq and a resolve to force a pullout have been echoed by the two top Democrats on Capitol Hill — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California.
The funding standoff will force the Pentagon to make budget cuts at bases in the U.S. to cover the costs of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, including sending furlough notices to as many as 100,000 civilian employees, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.
She said the furlough notices could start going out before the Democrat-led Congress returns from a two-week Thanksgiving break.
“We are calling on Congress … to send the president supplemental war funding without arbitrary surrender dates and without micromanaging the war before they leave for their next vacation, which is going to be around the Christmas holidays,” Mrs. Perino said.
“I think that Americans have seen what our troops have been able to do this year,” she said. “We’ve got a long way to go, but they have started to make some significant gains, and to pull the rug out from under them now seems irresponsible.”
House Democrats last week passed a $50 billion emergency war-spending bill that mandated a U.S. pullout start in 30 days with a goal of almost all troops leaving Iraq by December 2008.
Mr. Bush promised to veto the bill and Senate Republicans blocked the bill in a procedural vote Friday.
John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid, represent a trifecta of stupid. I wouldn’t trust the “Defeatocrats” to oversee a paintball game, much less a war. After the Democrats are through grand standing, “The Decider” will still get every penny of the war funding with no strings attached.
-Chris Jones
Something To Give Thanks For
As always Christopher Hitchens says it best in his latest column discussing the flood of recent good news coming out of Iraq.
I am not at all certain that any of this apparently good news is really genuine or will be really lasting. However, I am quite sure both that it could be true and that it would be wonderful if it were to be true. What worries me about the reaction of liberals and Democrats is not the skepticism, which is pardonable, but the dank and sinister impression they give that the worse the tidings, the better they would be pleased. The latter mentality isn’t pardonable and ought not to be pardoned, either.
The problem is that Democrats have staked their entire political future on our defeat in Iraq, so now that things are turning around they still keep up the same tired rhetoric about “policing civil wars.” It was entirely appropriate to call for a change in strategy before, but now that a new strategy has been implemented and it appears to be working it’s time for critics to pipe down.
Harry Reid looks like a moron when he stands behind the podium demanding a “new strategy” even though we have one and it’s working.
-Chris Jones
Democrats vow not to be bullied by Bush on Iraq
Democrats who lead Congress likened President George W. Bush on Thursday to a bully on Iraq war policy and vowed to spend no more on combat without a deadline for bringing U.S. troops home.
“Americans need someone fighting for them taking on this bully we have in the White House,” said Harry Reid.
Reid went on to accuse Bush of wanting a free-flow of hundreds of billions of dollars for the Iraq war, all the while being tight-fisted on the home front.
“Every dollar we spend in Iraq comes at the expense of people in America,” Reid said.
Democrats have been and will always be fully invested in Defeat in Iraq. The new bill they passed which is guaranteed to be vetoed is just another attempt to hurt the war effort.
A good way to tell that we are finally winning in Iraq is that you hardly see anything about it in the news. When things were going badly the New York Times couldn’t wait to tell us about. It was the lead story every night on the news. In the last few weeks the stories have almost completely stopped in the papers and on television.
The media has been pounding the table everyday for about 3 years that we are losing in Iraq and our strategy is a failure. If the media doesn’t have something bad to say, they just don’t say anything at all.
-Chris Jones
Defeatocrats: Reid Threatens War Funding…Again
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday that Democrats won’t approve more money for the Iraq war this year unless President Bush agrees to begin bringing troops home.
The House and Senate planned to vote on a $50 billion measure for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would require Bush to initiate troop withdrawals immediately with the goal of ending combat by December 2008.
Reid says that if President Bush vetoes the bill (which he will) then he just won’t get his $50 billion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has made similar remarks in the last few days. Such remarks clearly show how out of touch the Defeatocrats Democrats are when it comes to the war in Iraq.
Their has been a stunning amount of good news coming out of Iraq in recent weeks providing a strong indication that the war is finally turning in our favor. Democrats meanwhile refuse to acknowledge any progress and instead seek creative new ways to undermine the war effort and engineer our defeat.
The important thing to remember is that undermining President Bush is the most important issue to Democrats. National Security and everything else run a very distant second.
At the end of the day, after Harry Reid cries and stomps his feet for a few days, the President will get every penny of that money without any conditions. In the meantime, I’m gonna sit back and watch this left-wing dog and pony show play out as usual.
-Chris Jones
Dems Question Latest Anti-War Strategy
Rank-and-file Democrats expressed heartburn on Friday over their party’s latest anti-war strategy, with some members reluctant to coincide a vote to bring troops home with Veterans Day. The House was on track to consider next week legislation that would give President Bush $50 billion for operations Iraq and Afghanistan but insist that he begin withdrawing troops.
The measure identifies a goal of ending combat by December 2008, leaving only enough soldiers and Marines behind to fight terrorists, train Iraqi security forces and protect U.S. assets.
Democrats (Defeatocrats) have been invested in defeat from the beginning and the reduction in dead soldiers coming home really puts a kink in their plans. Too bad!
-Chris Jones
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