I happened to catch on C-SPAN last night (yes, I’m a C-SPAN junkie) a briefing about House Joint Resolution 55, which calls for the complete withdrawal of troops from Iraq by October 1, 2006. For myself, I believe the troops should be withdrawn immediately–the death and destruction will continue as long as the U.S. remains in Iraq.

I’ve heard the argument that the U.S. can’t leave now because a civil war would erupt. Guess what? There already is a civil war in Iraq—a civil war that the U.S. created, and one we can’t prevent by staying there. The war virtually guaranteed a civil war between the Shiites and the Sunnis—and we are making things worse. The only course of action is immediate withdrawal, building a real coalition of truly willing countries, backed by the UN Security Council, to produce a truly stable presence in the region.

One of the speakers at the briefing was Max Cleland. You may remember that Cleland was serving as a U.S. Senator when the debate over going to war was heating up and the Administration was trying to create the Department of Homeland Security. Cleland was blocking the Administration’s version of the bill (but he was supporting a Democratic version to create the Department) over one issue: the Administration’s attempt to take away workers’ rights at the newly created bureaucracy.

So, during his election, his Republican challenger Saxby Chambliss ran one of the most despicable television attack ads in recent memory (and that’s saying a lot): it opened with
pictures of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, then assailed Cleland
for voting against President Bush’s Homeland Security bill. In other words, the ad effectively called into question Cleland’s patriotism, linking him with bin Laden and Hussein. Cleland lost his race.

I’m not sure what else Cleland could have given to his country: in 1968, he lost his right arm and both legs in Vietnam. On the other hand, Chambliss, who now serves in the Senate, got out of military service, claiming a bum knee.