The Stout Republican

Delivering on her election promise, Nancy Pelosi’s new intel chair Silvestre Reyes stated ealier today:

“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…

When asked how many additional troops he envisioned sending to Iraq, Reyes replied: “I would say 20,000 to 30,000—for the specific purpose of making sure those militias are dismantled, working in concert with the Iraqi military…

When a reporter suggested that was not a position that was likely to be popular with many House Democrats, Reyes replied: “Well again, I differ in that I don’t want Iraq to become the next Afghanistan. We could not allow Iraq to become a safe haven for Al Qaeda, for Hamas, for Hizbullah, or anybody else. We cannot allow Iran or Syria to have a free hand in there to further destabilize the Middle East.”

Reyes added that he was “very clear” about his position to Pelosi when she chose him over two rivals—Rep. Jane Harman of California and Rep. Alcee Hastings—to head the critical intelligence post…

[W]hen asked what he told Pelosi about his thinking on Iraq, Reyes replied: “What I said was, we can’t afford to leave there. And anybody who says, we are going pull out our troops immediately, is being dishonest … We’re all interested in getting out of Iraq. That’s a common goal. How we do it, I think, is the tough part. There are those that say, they don’t care what Iraq looks like once we leave there. Let’s just leave there. And I argue against that. I don’t think that’s responsible. And I think it plays right into the hands of Syria and Iran.”

Whew, and I was worried that the Democrats were going to mislead their electorate, and then change their stance on Iraq, and demand that the troops leave. A huge sigh of relief in the Democratic party today as it was confirmed by Democratic leadership that it’s irresponsible to leave Iraq before the job is done, and timetables are a bad idea.

Here’s a flashback as a reminder of what Pelosi said about a year ago, since we seem to forget so easily:

“I’m endorsing what Mr. Murtha is saying…I believe that a majority of our caucus clearly supports Mr. Murtha…and let’s be clear about what it is Mr. Murtha said, ‘Yes, let’s bring the troops home.”
-Nancy Pelosi

There’s two things you can walk away with from this.

1. Nancy doesn’t have control or insight into her nominees for these positions and is being tricked (muhaha).

2. Nancy knew leaving Iraq with a timetable was a bad idea.

Justification prediction?

Now that it’s the Democrats that are in power…it’s okay to keep the troops there longer, because War is only wrong if it’s a Republican majority. We just wanted a new direction in the War…that whole bringing the troop home now thing…never happened…yada yada yada. Time will tell.

Thanks to HotAir for posting the story.

House, Iraq