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07
Sen. Alexander steps up on Iraq
Jul 11, 2007Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., is the latest Republican to break ranks on the war. He (along with 5 other GOP senators and 6 Democratic senators) has introduced legislation that would adopt the Iraq Study Group report as a guide to extricate the country from the mess in Iraq.
The stated reason for bucking the president: the Iraqi government has failed to meet every single benchmark. Alexander (and others) are slowly coming to the realization that the U.S. military cannot win an Iraqi civil war.
Says Alexander: “The Iraq Study Group report provides a bipartisan framework to get us out of the combat business and into the support, training, and equipping business as soon as we honorably can.”
There are questions that remain. For instance, what does “as soon as we honorably can” mean?
But this is a significant bipartisan move to craft a sane exit from an insane situation. It would be much worse if the matter is left to the next administration or if the forces on the left are allowed to craft an exit plan.
Posted by Andrea Hopkins Centerfield
Jul 10, 2007A gentleman that I know suggested a centrist is a liberal or a conservative without the courage of his or her convictions. He dismissed the whole concept of a centrist movement as one involving too many compromises.
I disagree. Centrism feels like a distinct political movement to me. It seems distinct from political independence, because centrists often identify with one of the two major parties ... but part ways with their more ideological brethren on one or more issues.
So what do you think: Is centrism a distinctly different political bent or is it merely a lack of core convictions? Or does it reflect an ideological mismatch on a few distinct issues? For example, pro-choice Republicans or pro-life Democrats?
I consider myself a centrist, although I generally identify with one of the two major parties on most issues. I’m just more interested in getting things done than in political street fighting and the hard-core ideology on the right (which seems both overtly religious and patriarchal) turns me off.
