Political Theater: Act I: The eyelash victories...in which the Lilliputians try to tie down an exhausted Gulliver.

Watching CNN International last night I wondered whether my government back in Washington, DC really understands how the “image” it portrays is perceived abroad. We look as if we were involved in a perpetually petty fight that hangs ominously over all of us…some of us worry, others wait in gleeful anticipation of disaster.

Far away from the US, this image seems surreal, and hard to understand. What comes to mind is that famous saying… “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. But maybe, maybe this may be more a case of much ado about nothing. Who knows.

Well, reading this morning the editorial from Opinion Journal, it all made sense. Thanks to this editorial it is easier for me to explain to others what’s going on back home.

I hope my foreign friends will take note that in the deadline for withdrawal from Iraq, what is called the "Iraq Accountability Act,"

… the key word in that construction is the last one. This is all an act. This week the Senate joined the House in passing a "deadline" for Iraq withdrawal that Members know has no chance of becoming law. President Bush has promised a veto, and the eyelash victories in both houses show that his veto will be sustained with ease.
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Mr. Bush has been warning about his veto for weeks, but Democrats have moved ahead anyway because the vote is really about political theater. Democrats need to appease their antiwar base… None of this is real "accountability," however, because Democrats lack the nerve to truly stop the war by defunding it. Having criticized the bill at first, MoveOn.org and the antiwar caucus turned around and endorsed this theatrical fallback once they realized they lacked the votes to stop the war.

This vote allows Democrats to claim they opposed General David Petraeus's plan to stabilize Baghdad, even as they let him fight.
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The spectacle qualifies as a textbook example of why Congress can't be trusted to micromanage, much less lead, a war. It's a committee of Lilliputians whose main contribution is to tie down the President so that his policy fails. ...Congress [ought to] fulfill the one war power it does have, which is to appropriate enough money so [the] troops can accomplish their mission.

[Congress] [President Bush] [Iraq] [war] [Iraq Accountability Act]