War of Words: Country needs honest debate, not name-calling
09:22 AM CST on Tuesday, November 22, 2005
With President Bush overseas, Rep. John Murtha's stunning call for an immediate pullout from Iraq skirted the long-standing custom of not criticizing a sitting president when he's out of the country.
No doubt the Pennsylvania Democrat's comments were heartfelt, and they weren't deserving of the public excoriation he received from a White House spokesman, who suggested that the decorated Marine was somehow unpatriotic and compared him to filmmaker Michael Moore.
To his credit, Mr. Bush came to the congressman's defense, but not before congressional Democrats and Republicans erupted in a vicious war of words. Said the president: "This is not an issue of who's a patriot and who's not patriotic. It's an issue of an honest, open debate about the way forward in Iraq."
It's a way of life in Washington – pithy sound bites and recriminations obscuring legitimate policy debates. Democrats set the ball in motion with still unproven allegations that the administration lied about whether Saddam Hussein's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction. But the Republicans kept it rolling.
The administration has to recognize that the public and congressional debate over Iraq has entered a new phase, one in which sharp rebukes will not suffice as open and honest public discourse.
Criticism is not coming just from the political fringes, but also from mainstream moderates of both parties. The Republican-controlled Senate last week approved a proposal to seek from the administration additional quarterly reports on the war's progress. And, as Mr. Murtha said: "It's the public that is thirsting for an answer to this thing. ... They don't want a war of words. This is a real war where people are being hurt, and they want a solution to this very difficult problem."
Mr. Murtha's call for a rapid withdrawal is impractical and counterproductive to efforts to stabilize Iraq. Asking hard questions about the progress in Iraq isn't. It's a debate the nation must continue to have, and one the Bush administration must facilitate.
And it's a debate that will be most productive if it is done without partisan recriminations from either corner that relegate our courageous soldiers to political pawns.
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