California Conservative

Sen. Harry Reid issued an angry press release criticizing the Bush Administration for resorting “to his old playbook of discredited rhetoric about the war on terror and political attacks as his own political fortunes and credibility diminish.”

Here’s a full fisking of Reid’s comments:

“On this Veterans Day, the President had the opportunity to honor our troops, both those who have served and those who are currently serving, by laying out a clear strategy for success in the war in Iraq. Instead, the President resorted to his old playbook of discredited rhetoric about the war on terror and political attacks as his own political fortunes and credibility diminish.

Harry, get serious. The soldiers fighting to give the Iraqi people the same freedom that we take for granted likely felt proud that their president stood up for them with his speech. Many of our military forces have called radio talk shows and emailed righty bloggers saying that they believe in their mission and that invading Iraq was the right thing to do.

Soon, the only “discredited rhetoric about the war on terror” will be accredited to dimwitted Democrats like you. The soldiers know the score and so do the American people. Speeches like today simply trash your political attacks with verifiable facts.

“Attacking those patriotic Americans who have raised serious questions about the case the Bush Administration made to take our country to war does not provide us a plan for success that will bring our troops home. Americans seek the truth about how the nation committed our troops to war because the decision to go to war is too serious to be entered into under faulty pretenses.

President Bush didn’t attack senators for raising serious questions about the case his administration made. He exposed their fraud by using their words against them in an effort to expose their hypocrisy and their politicization of the war. If you want him to stop attacking your lies and exposing your hypocrisy, stop lying and being hypocrites.

While the Bush administration continues to stonewall the Congress from finding the truth about the manipulation of prewar intelligence, Democrats will continue to press for a full airing of the facts.

We stand with our troops when we ask the hard questions, and with their families when we fight to get them, their families and our veterans the benefits they deserve. “We fear Iraq has become what it was not before the war, a haven for terrorists. We can no longer simply pledge to stay the course, we must change the cours.(sic)

You think you’re “standing with our troops” when you act like you were innocent bystanders in taking the nation to war? You think you’re “standing with our troops” when you play politics with the gravest decision any president has to make? Get serious.

You don’t stand with the troops when you imply that the troops are fighting an illegitimate war that only happened because the Bush administration lied to you about the intelligence you saw with your own eyes.

You don’t stand with the troops when you’re only interest is in weakening this President for the sole purpose of not having to debate him on the merits of the war. That’s shameful, pure and simple.

The American people are demanding a comprehensive plan and the benchmarks by which to measure our success for the war in Iraq. The president’s continued refusal to provide that plan does nothing to support our troops or their families.

Harry, it isn’t that we don’t have a comprehensive plan for success in Iraq. It’s that we have blowhards like you, Teddy Kennedy, John Kerry, et al, acting like the President’s plan isn’t working even though it’s working quite well.

It also doesn’t help when you insist on an unreasonable pace at achieving their mission of stabilizing a democratic Iraq. The fact is that the President is right in saying that we’ve made incredible progress, especially on the political side. Turning over sovereignty when people said it was irresponsible, then holding a pair of elections with terrorists threatening anyone and everyone who voted, writing and ratifying the permanent Iraqi Constitution and the building of the Iraqi security forces and military in a mere 3 years is incredible and our military should be commended for it.

Instead, Harry and his cohorts rail against the Bush administration for having a “failed strategy” that’s accomplishing their goals in establishing a stabilized Iraq in a timely fashion.

That isn’t supporting the troops. Most people would say that that’s undermining the troops’ morale.

Shame on you Harry. Shame on you.

Cross-posted at BoxerWatch

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 13th, 2005 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Author: Gary Gross, DNC, Liberals, W, Washington, DC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.