And then third, the whole notion of having benchmarks. Of meeting some guideposts, of having some accountability is what Congress is doing. Now we have to get a policy where the president is absolutely—he does not want any date, any time for a date, to get out.
Democrats are clear that we want a date from the beginning for redeployment to deal with what’s happening in Afghanistan, deal with where al Qaeda is and stop having our policy held hostage in Iraq when the al Qaeda is formulated in Afghanistan and we have got to move resources to dealing with where al Qaeda is.
Horseshit. People outside the Beltway who are still willing to call themselves Democrats don't give a rat's ass for benchmarks, and those who did in March now understand that they wasted 8 months on that bullshit. Over 90% of Democrats want to bring the troops and the contractors and the mercenaries who are in Iraq HOME, not send them to Afghanistan.
MATTHEWS: You say your policy is being held hostage. It seems to me that was what I was suggesting. That the president merely has to blackmail you guys and say the minute you try to cut off any spending for this war, which would really be decisive, the minute you do that he’ll say you’re endangering our troops and you guys has to run them. Doesn’t he have control over the Congress that way?
EMANUEL: Listen, he does have an impact in trying to say you’re affecting the troops. We believe putting troops in harm’s way without a strategy for reconciliation, without a political strategy or the hard work on the political and diplomatic front is holding our troops hostage.
Everybody acknowledges including Secretary Gates, the defense secretary, that A, that you can’t solve this militarily alone and B, all we’re doing is military strategy. We’re putting more and more of the responsibility on our troops and less on the Iraqis to stand up.
What we did, in fact, when we started to talk about meeting benchmarks and started saying that we’re not having a policy that’s just an open wallet and open commitment, even Secretary Gates, the defense secretary, said that was helpful to try to move the Iraqis forward. What we have gone from, specifically we have said we want a date to start to have the troops home.
Move WHO forward? You are STILL, after 10 months of running the US Capitol into the ground, you are STILL blaming the Iraqis for how they're handling our occupation of their country. Here's what 80 percent of Iraqis would like to see you do, you pathetic warprofiteering little punk: GET THE HELL OUT OF THEIR COUNTRY.
They said they wouldn’t accept that. So we went back and said, OK, we want by X date a plan on how to get the troops home and what it will take to get the troops home. We have never deviated from the goal of getting our troops now back from Iraq, redeployed into fighting al Qaeda and fighting terrorism. The road we’ll take to it may be different from the first road we took, but getting to that goal line, we have never deviated from that.
Now, here would be the point where an interview NOT conducted by General Electric would ask: Why don't you just cut off the money by blocking any more bills to provide more money? There's plenty already appropriated to withdraw the troops and contractors and mercenaries. You can pass extra funding just for withdrawal if you really must. But why not block all bills to fund the extenstion of the occupation? Instead of telling Emanuel what the Congressional leadership can do, Matthews ASKS him. Of course, that leads nowhere:
MATTHEWS: You saw “The Washington Post” today, congressman. You saw the pictures in color of the young guys and women who have been killed just in the last month.
Is there anything you’re able to do to stop the rain of death for our G.I.s? Look at the pictures. I don’t have to tell you about the emotions, you deal with constituents. I’m just asking you, is there anything you’re able to do in Congress to stop the killing?
EMANUEL: Well, a couple of things. First of all, before we get there, you know, outside of my office, and I invite you any time you want, Chris, I have the faces of everybody who’s fallen in both Iraq and Afghanistan. I put—it’s now close to taking the entire hallway.
So I walk by that on a regular basis. OK? I don’t just—it’s not just when “The Washington Post” decides to publish it. I put it outside my office personally as a testament to their sacrifice and on the floor I have repeatedly led bipartisan one-hours reading every name into the congressional record so their families know that those individuals who have given their life will never be forgotten. So I have done some personal things beyond just on legislation.
We can ALL do THAT, you moron. You are one of 435 people who can do much more than that, but you won't.
Third, you know, everything that you’re talking about like on this recent request that the president has, on this humvee, the whole discussion of inadequate humvees, of Kevlar vests that were not provided to the guards and reserves that were being sent over there, were all brought up by Democrats. In fact, the type of stuff they’re talking about finally getting over are things that we brought up that you sent men and women into harm’s way without what they needed.
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