Iraq: Dems’ Dreams Dashed?

When the Democrats took back Congress they promised a “new direction” in Iraq. What happened?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


On Monday, Senate Democrats held a “media summit” for reporters, where they outlined their agenda for the coming year. They promoted all their plans for creating economic stimulus, protecting civil liberties, and pushing health care reform. But when it came to the Iraq war, they had nothing new to say. The senators expressed a general commitment to ending the war and called for Iraqis to take more responsibility for their future. But as George W. Bush enters his final year in office, the Democrats appear to have no good ideas on how to confront him on Iraq.

On election night 2006, a triumphant Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic Speaker-to-be, promised a “new direction” in Iraq. And in the months that followed, congressional Democrats, hoping they could force a change in the president’s policy, attempted a variety of legislative maneuvers to do just that, even at one point staging an all-nighter in the Senate in advance of a vote to withdraw troops. All those efforts failed.

The president refused to budge, and congressional Republicans have remained steadfast in their opposition to bills that tied war funding to withdrawal timetables, shortened deployments, or restrained the troops’ mission in Iraq. Using Senate filibusters and once relying on the President’s veto pen, Republicans were able to block Democratic efforts to change course in Iraq.

There are more American troops in Iraq today than when the Democrats assumed the majority in Congress. On Monday, the Pentagon announced that the president will ask Congress next week for another $70 billion to fund the war through his last day in office. And the administration has signaled that it may seek to enter a long-term security agreement with Iraq, which could lay the groundwork for a military commitment that extends beyond the Bush presidency. Also on Monday, Bush issued a presidential “signing statement” indicating that the White House may ignore provisions included in a recently passed defense authorization bill, among them a measure prohibiting permanent American bases in Iraq.

In July, Lee Hamilton, the former Democratic congressman and co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, predicted that “the Democrats are not going to stop the war.” It’s becoming increasingly clear that he was right. The Associated Press reported on Monday that Democrats are reluctant to begin debate on the $70 billion spending bill because they don’t have the votes to bring the troops home. To stop the war, the Democrats could filibuster funding for the troops. But a majority of congressional Democrats have balked at resorting to this “nuclear option.”

Without a legislative exit strategy, Democratic leaders in Congress still insist that Iraq remains a priority. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, says, “both the Speaker and Senator Reid are committed to try to force a change in policy.” But he concedes that congressional leaders remain “a bit surprised that the Republicans, especially in the Senate, stuck to the President this far.” It is possible that vulnerable Republicans who are up for reelection this November will change their positions on the war. But as American casualties in Iraq have fallen in recent months, Republican pro-war rhetoric has grown more strident, not less so.

Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a leading anti-war Democrat, said this week that despite the obvious political obstacles, the Democrats should not cease efforts to end the war. “Of course, we have to have a Democratic president if we want the troops home at all,” she said. “But we cannot stop the [antiwar] drumbeat because that would be irresponsible. . .We have a responsibility, and that is to talk about this, and remind people that it’s going on. They’ve got to know that members of Congress ‘get it’ and care.”

Ninety-four members of Congress have signed a letter Woolsey circulated promising not to vote to fund any war measure that does not bring the troops home. And Woolsey herself has new legislation planned for February that will, she says, “bring our troops home in orderly fashion within a year.” The bill, like others the Democrats have advanced during the past year, seems doomed, but Woolsey is unfazed. “It’s on my watch,” she said. “And there’s nothing in me resigned that this is OK and I can wait a year before any more is done about it.”

Even some antiwar activists now seem to accept that withdrawing from Iraq is a non-starter in Congress—at least until there is a Democratic president. Judith LeBlanc, the national organizing coordinator for United for Peace and Justice, an umbrella group for antiwar organizations, says that the movement’s high hopes at the beginning of 2007 have led to a letdown. While she praised the Democrats’ efforts, LeBlanc said that “the political reality is that the pro-war side maintained a lot of political momentum and political control. The slim margin in the Senate effectively blocked any attempts to end the war.” Currently, she says, her organization and its member groups are planning anti-war rallies to pressure Congress in the coming year. But, she acknowledges, it is “unlikely” large numbers of troops will depart Iraq before the close of the Bush presidency. “It’s unfortunate, and many more U.S. troops and Iraqi people will die,” she said.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate