Iowa Fourth District Congressman Tom Latham spoke out Wednesday against the House resolution against President Bush’s proposed troop surge in Iraq. Latham, a republican from Alexander, says the non-binding resolution speaks to only one part of the president’s plan that came out of the Iraq Study Group recommendations.
Latham says democrat leaders publicly stated they hoped the president would embrace the Iraq study group’s approach. But Latham says when the administration proposed carrying out the study group policy recommendations, including the troop surge, "the democrats backed away and took the cynical approach, oppose and criticize, rather than to offer to work for real solutions."
Latham says the democrats did not learn from the micromanagement of the war in Vietnam. Latham says every democrat who votes for the resolution is endorsing the democrat party’s decision "to manage the party from Capitol Hill." Latham says the democrats have indicated the resolution is the first effort by the democrats to micromanage the war. Latham says the vote for the resolution puts the outcome in the hands of the legislators.
Latham says: "Now that the democrat leadership has assumed the role of Commanders in Chief the consequences of failures are also theirs. And just as the North Vietnamese changed their strategy and were emboldened by the misguided legislative actions of the Congress, so to will the enemies of freedom in Iraq be emboldened by this and subsequent resolutions."
Latham says the blame for the aftermath of pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq will fall on those who vote for the resolution. Latham says, "You can rest assured the humanitarian disaster will be yours. The jihadist victory will be yours. The rogue state coalition of Iran and Syria will be yours. A genocidal Suni-Shite-Arab civil war will be yours. You will have handed Al-Qaida victory and empowered its homicidal leaders."