Wanted: New Leadership on Iraq

President Reagan and John Murtha at Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Perhaps I should be a little more patient, but one week after an historic Election Day triumph that was first and foremost a vote against the Iraq war, the Democratic Party seems unable to move from sloganeering to offering a concrete roadmap out of the Mess in Mesopotamia.

Democrats mumbled about a phased troop withdrawal on the campaign trail while heaping deserved scorn on The Decider. All good, but that was then and now is now.

It is time for the newly-minted majority party to:

* Move beyond bromides and present a detailed plan for getting the hell out of Iraq. This becomes more urgent in the face of White House Press Secretary Tony Snow making the astonishing assertion that "the strategy for victory is working."

* Move beyond hearings on the war itself such as those being held this week by the Senate Armed Services Committee and announce hearings to commence with the new Congress on why it exercised no oversight. Yes, hearings will be divisive, but Americans deserve to know why their legislators -- Democrats included -- betrayed them and let The Decider run roughshod.

LOSING CONTROL

This where things stand:

The Decider has lost control of events. He blathers about welcoming new ideas on the war after but rejects out of hand any ideas that don't conform with his own. This was on display on Monday when he again rebuffed calls for phased troop withdrawls in making the astonishing assertion that "conditions in Iraq, not politics" will determine what happens -- when exactly the opposite has been the case.

The U.S. military has lost control of its mission. Troops are taking significantly higher casualties although many units spend most of the time in barracks, the latest Baghdad security sweep has been a failure, and insurgents have made major inroads in western Anbar Province.

Nuri Al-Maliki has lost control of his government. The Iraqi prime minister, who is beholden to radical anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, claims that a purge of his cabinet is what is needed to end the carnage and turn things around.

Muqtada al-Sadr has lost control of his militia. Iraqi has devolved into such chaos that the cleric ho longer has effective command of elements of his feared Mahdi Army, a militia that has done some devolving of its own – from a protector of Shiites to an armed apparatus for ethic cleansing. (It is probably behind the brazen kidnapping today of 100 to 150 people from the Iraqi higher education ministry.)

It is time for the Democrats to begin to fill this power vacuum by taking control and engaging in a wide-ranging discussion of all the options, including breaking Iraq into ethnic enclaves, as well as the feasibility of what James Baker’s Iraq Study Group will propose.

FINDING LEADERSHIP

What Democrat should lead this discussion?

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but a logical choice is Representative John Murtha, whom House speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi wants to become House majority leader.

Murtha is a gadzillion term congressman from Western Pennsylvania, pork expediter extraordinaire and a former Marine Corps officer who re-enlisted to serve in Vietnam, where he received several combat decorations while George Bush was hiding out in an Air National Guard unit, boozing it up and snorting cocaine, and Dick Cheney was riding on student deferments at the University of Wisconsin.

Murtha became the first Vietnam combat veteran elected to Congress, which gave him the gravitas to demand the “redeployment” (code for phased withdrawal) of U.S. troops from Iraq in November 2005. His clarion call ignited a firestorm and the predictable Republican charges that he was a traitor.

My problems with Murtha are that:

* He has long been ethically suspect, legislative reform averse and a target of several investigations, including Abscam, a sting involving undercover FBI agents posing as representatives of wealthy Arab sheiks willing to pay to obtain asylum in the United States.

During a meeting in a Washington, D.C. townhouse, an agent offered Murtha $50,000 cash, and he refused it, stating "I'm not interested . . . at this point."

It is no suprise that Pelosi's endorsement has been greeted with harsh criticism.

* He amply filled the caricature of a daft liberal painted by Republicans, although he is a lot closer ideologically to Ronald Reagan than John Kerry as a career conservative who is hawkish on war generally, pro-gun and anti-abortion.

And while he has been relentlessly on message about Iraq, his message has sounded increasingly simplistic as the war has grown more complex. But again, that was then and now is now.

No matter, go for it, John.