Tuesday, April 24, 2007

The Two Faces of Harry

On Thursday Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proclaimed to the world the United States has lost the war in Iraq.


For an elected official to declare to the world that the United States has lost a military conflict it is actively engaged in is irresponsible and shameful. There are no words to describe the aide this gives our enemies and the pain it causes our soldiers. However, one of the people who disputed the “war is lost” statement by the Senate Majority Leader is the Senator from Nevada, Harry Reid.


This weekend, Senator Reid said, “…no one wants us to succeed more in Iraq than Democrats.” I will be the first to admit that I view myself as a conservative, and that I believe the Democrats look at the world through the wrong lens. However, I have trouble reconciling the two statements the Senator made in the span of a few days. Either the Senator has no idea what he thinks about the War in Iraq, he doesn’t care about Iraq and is only looking for political points, or the Senator has succumb to a mental disorder of some sort and needs immediate medical attention. Regardless of the true problem, one thing is certain: Senator Reid must resign his position as Senate Majority Leader, and should resign from the Senate.


I am not simply applying the same rule to the Democratic Senator as the Democrats would apply to any Republican in a similar position. There will be those who say, “You are only saying this because if the roles were reversed, the Democrats would want the Republican Senators head on a platter.” And perhaps my critics are correct about some small, subconscious part of my mind.


However, I say Senator Reid must resign because he has either decided a small political gain is worth more than a US victory in Iraq, or that the Senator needs to seek immediate medical attention. If it is the first reason, the people of Nevada deserve someone better than that representing them and the people of the United States deserve better than this kind of shameful conduct from a leader in the US Senate. If it is the second reason, my thoughts and prayers are with Harry Reid and his family during this difficult time.


Either way, Senator Reid no longer deserves the respect or trust of the people of the United States and must immediately resign.

2 comments:

Brandon said...

I've never been that big of a fan of Reid as the Democratic leader, I never understood why we didn't replace him after the mid-terms. I think that Evan Bayh from Indiana or Joe Biden from Delaware or Carl Levin from Michigan would've all been better choices, although Biden would've had to take care not to stick his foot in his mouth as he's prone to do.

I would comment about Reid's Iraq comments, but I just did a post on the Iraq war on my politics blog & I don't feel like repeating myself here.

Anonymous said...

It makes no sense to me for Senator Reid to vote for a $100 billion funding bill for the troops if the "war is lost." If it is lost do not waste one more dime on the war. If the war is lost why are we going to continue to fight for another 10 months? Reid is a bad leader and I am embarrassed to live in a country where the people have allowed this man to be a leader and then after all of his comments and legislation continue to be a leader unchecked.