New House Intelligence Committee Chairman Presses for More Troops to Iraq

Here's a short news item that can be pondered as readers peruse the much-awaited release of the report from the Iraq Study Group. According to Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball of Newsweek, the incoming Democratic Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee favors sending more troops to Iraq...

In an interview with NEWSWEEK on Tuesday, [Congressman Silvestre Reyes] pointedly distanced himself from many of his Democratic colleagues who have called for fixed timetables for the withdrawal of U.S. troops. Coming on the eve of tomorrow’s recommendations from the bipartisan Baker-Hamilton commission, Reyes’s comments were immediately cited by some Iraq war analysts as fresh evidence that the intense debate over U.S. policy may be more fluid than many have expected.

“We’re not going to have stability in Iraq until we eliminate those militias, those private armies,” Reyes said. “We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize Iraq … We certainly can’t leave Iraq and run the risk that it becomes [like] Afghanistan” was before the 2001 invasion by the United States.

Congressman Reyes' position is a direct result of the liberal inability to develop any position on the War on Terror. Without the benefit of a coherent strategy that he and his political allies believe in, the Congressman is left with the stark choice of pretending the War on Terror doesn't exist or pressing ahead from our current position.

It's good to see that there are still a few honest Democrats who realize that pretending it doesn't exist is not an option. However, I'm not quite sure that the ISG has come to this realization...