who stained their fingers with ink for the State of the Union speech
"diminished the true significance of what happened last weekend in
Iraq." Mr. Schuster feels that since they aren't in Iraq, they
shouldn't be able to attempt a show of solidarity.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5445086/
"The fact is, few members of Congress have a son or daughter serving in
the
U.S. military. And few lawmakers have actually ever served
themselves.
Furthermore, in Washington, D.C., even "political courage,"
(never mind the
real stuff) is exceptionally rare. Am I being too
cynical? Probably. (And
I'm sure I'll get a ton of nasty e-mails from
some of you.) But, if members
of Congress want to show "solidarity"
with the Iraqi people... they are
welcome to head to Baghdad, put on a
flak jacket, and help/advise the new
assembly on writing the
constitution."
It seems to me that it is incredibly important that US lawmakers show
they are with the Iraqis. The hard stuff isn't over and while the
Iraqis are facing challenges from insurgents, US lawmakers are facing
challenges from the kook leftist fringe, headed by Ted "the
Chappaquiddick Killer" Kennedy. It is important that we show every
Iraqi we will not listen to the lunatics who want us to shout our troop
withdrawal plans from on high for every terrorist and murdered to hear
and scheme for. If we follow Teddy the lush and tell the world we are
pulling troops out on x day, obviously the terrorist will wait till the
day after x to kill people with no protection. They won't even need to
be suicide bombers; they can massacre people with no repercussion.
While the ink stained fingers may have been part political theater, it
wasn't unnecessary nor did it do anything to diminish what Iraqi's
accomplished on Sunday. Instead it was a fantastic "shout out" on a
global scale, telling the world that we will not abandon the Iraqi's.
