Boxer Criticizes Iraq War in SF Speech

Ah, Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Lalaland), once again stands forth in her self-annointed role as useful idiot. My apologies if this is long, but Barbie makes it easy at every turn.

Sen. Barbara Boxer offered a major foreign policy speech on the war in Iraq before hundreds of her constituents in San Francisco today.

The situation in Iraq is spiraling out of control, she said, and the pool of people willing to fight in the insurgency against American troop presence there seems bottomless.

She described herself as “distressed, angry and frustrated” over the continuing unrest in Iraq and the mounting death toll with no apparent end in sight.

“Iraq was a war of choice, not a war of necessity,” she said.

“We have no idea, none, how long the administration plans to be in Iraq,” she said.

We do actually have a vague idea — we will leave when we have succeeded. That is a solid plan. As to a specific exit date, I would think that the only people more disappointed than Boxer that one hasn’t been set are the terrorists opposing us. Umm … senator, in all your studies of history, can you name a single successful war in which a withdrawal date was set before actual victory had been achieved? Or do you consider an unstable but progressing Iraq a victory to walk away from, rather than just a step to a possible success?

“When we see this next generation coming along … we owe them everything that we have in us to leave them a better world,” Boxer said.

She cited the latest American soldier death count of 1,749, 13,336 wounded and at least 8,000 dead Iraqis as proof positive that a clear mission and foreign policy shift are in order.

“Our troops deserve more than they are getting, they deserve more than the status quo,” she said.

This is, unsurprisingly, a rather weak statement. The argument is fairly bankrupt when the only evidence against the current strategy consists of an emotional plea and casualty figures, casualty figures that are dwarfed by practically all those in the history of warfare.

President George Bush’s administration “took its eye off the ball” when it shifted its focus from finding Osama bin Laden to waging a pre-emptive war against Iraq, she said.

Pray tell, just how has the troop level in Afghanistan changed after that “eye off the ball” thing happened? Seriously, I guess I lied when I said the 2004 election was finally over — Boxer is still reading verbatim from John Kerry campaign speeches.

As Bush’s reasons for the war have changed, the mission has become ever more ambiguous, she said.

Reasons haven’t changed. Mission hasn’t changed. Boxer’s sniping attacks haven’t changed. Well, I guess we can celebrate consistency.

“That mission is a guarantee of a never-ending cycle of violence,” she said, as America’s military presence there seems to be a magnet for recruits for the insurgency.

Just as in 1993 and 2001, the World Trade Center towers were a magnet for terror. Still, senator, I’d rather we at least try shooting the Islamist bastards to pieces over there than picking up the pieces over here.

The insurgency now numbers anywhere from 12,000 to 50,000 fighters, she said.

“The insurgents are winning the propaganda wars now,” she said.

If the terrorists are winning the propaganda wars now, it’s no great surprise — they’ve got Sens. Boxer, Ted Kennedy and Dick Durbin manning the front lines with poisonous swill being lapped up by al-Jazeera.

“Terrorism is a result of this war,” Boxer said, amid applause at the Commonwealth Club of California-sponsored speech at the Renaissance Parc 55 Hotel.

Aye, lassie, and terrorism is also the cause of this war. Don’t ye forget. Ever.

The mission, she said, should be security for Iraqis by Iraqis.

“It takes a long time to get a perfect democracy — ours certainly did,” Boxer said, citing the Supreme Court’s involvement in the 2000 presidential election as evidence that even America’s democracy has yet to reach perfection.

“Give us a mission that can succeed,” she said. “Give us a mission that makes sense.”

As those are the goals of the current strategy you despise, give us a feasible alternative. Or shut up with the al-Jazeera-headline-making, terrorist-encouraging, GI-endangering political hack job.

Boxer described her speech as the culmination of her thoughts and comments she’s made on the war in Iraq, since the war began in March 2003.

I agree with Boxer here, as the speech is a culmination of her thoughts and comments — no ideas, no alternatives, plenty of attacks on our efforts, plenty of quotes for our enemies to use. Yup, that’s Boxer in a nutshell.

Like I said, so easy at every turn. Damn it feels good to be a blogger.