That "Debate" was a pretty lame affair, wasn't it?

[joemurphy]

Let's drag in everybody with military experience and then talk about "staying until the job is done" and "supporting the troops" and "how we never hear all the wonderful, positive news coming out of Iraq."

And we get our military guy and we read letters from soldiers and soldiers' wives saying we don't have a plan, and we need to "redeploy" and form a "rapid response unit" and let diplomacy take over.

With all due respect to everyone's military service and the sacrifices that have been made, I thought the whole affair was pretty goddamned lame.

Personally, I think they need to come home now. If the Iraqis want to start killing one another, they can do it on somebody else's watch. I'm more interested in getting an accounting from the assholes that got us into Iraq in the first place.

[patrice]

1. Lame is right. I'm depressed.

[Carolab]

2. Exactly. It's their country and they can straighten it out (or not).

We're just making it worse.

[The2ndWheel]

9. Never been their country

From the day Britian carved it up by drawing some lines on a map, to November 18th, 2005, it's never been their country.

[Carolab]

12. Not true. Iraq was and is a sovereign state.

http://enews.tufts.edu/stories/093003Hannum.htm

Just because we occupied it, that doesn't change its status.

[BJW]

3. One high positive

was the near unanimity shown by Dems on both votes. Also, I thought it was highly effective to give time to Murtha and let him speak at length during vote 2, instead of having a whole bunch of different people mouthing platitudes and TPs, like the repugs did. All in all I thought the repugs came off extremely poorly--in word, intention and deed, and the Dems showed dignity, seriousness and decency.

[joemurphy]

8. I thought using Murtha to handle all the Repubs was smart...

I don't know whose idea that was -- whether it was Pelosi or Murtha -- but that was brilliant. Murtha did a good job defending his position too. But I personally thought he was more effective when he was quoting facts...Less electricity in Iraq now than before the war, incidents up from 200 per week to 725, 80% of Iraqis want us to leave now...instead of reading maudlin letters about suffering soldiers.

The Republican response, when parsed, was pretty weak. It was pure Bush "stay the course" crap again and didn't have any answers as to what a victory is supposed to look like or when we can expect it.

[BJW]

10. About Repug responses

A little while ago I saw this editorial cartoon but now I can't find it. It was of * walking around one corner of a cube saying, "We're turning the corner," and then walking around the next corner of the cube saying, "We're turning the corner," and on and on.

This is what the repugs were sounding like tonight. Repeat idiotic TP. Repeat idiotic TP. Repeat idiotic TP.

Yeah, I totally thought the Murtha as point-man worked out great too. I mean, this man MEANT what he was saying. The difference in sincerity was obvious.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. The important thing is... IT HAPPENED

they will kick themselves in the morning, the pubs will

[truthisfreedom]

5. we need them to come home so they can guard Washington DC and make

sure not ONE of these corrupt m*%#@%*^©^ers gets away without being indicted, tried, and found GUILTY of TREASON.

[DanCa]

6. I still question the term debate

It was a shouting match not a debate.

[BJW]

11. well yeah, and I think alot of that was due

to the idiotic rule strictures and compressed time limits that the repugs put on the "debate." The repugs set it all up so that it was timed to make the Fri. p.m. news cycle for weekend TP regurgitation, and extended discussion during the holiday break.

Maybe call it the "precursor" to the real debate??

[fishnfla]

7. Screw the debate. Screw the resolution. Time will prove Murtha right

It already has. Nothing said in Washington tonight will change the course of the war in Iraq. Nothing will change from the WH to the Green zone to the Anbar province and people will keep on dying