McCain's Support-The-Bush Iraq Resolution

One of the resolutions that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell seemed to like better than the bipartisan Warner-Levin bill opposing the escalation of the Iraq war, was the measure put forth by Senator John McCain (R-AZ).

But the effort by the Republican presidential favorite is like the "Seinfeld" of legislation -- it's sort of a resolution about nothing.

The McCain measure (S. Res. 70) says all the usual "whereas" stuff at the beginning…. Whereas we have 137,000 troops in Iraq, whereas we support them, whereas a failed Iraqi state would be a bad thing, whereas Baghdad must be secure, whereas the Iraqi political leaders must show progress in making things work, yada, yada, yada.

But then you get to the part of what the Senate would resolve if approving McCain's resolution and the rubber really misses the road:

Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--

(1) Congress should ensure that General David Petraeus, the Commander of Multinational Forces-Iraq, and all United States personnel under his command, have the resources they consider necessary to carry out their mission on behalf of the United States in Iraq.

I suppose that's useful because, after all, we know that almost nobody supports the troops and Senators are lining up to propose legislation to take bullets out of American soldiers' guns. And even more useless is…

(2) the Government of Iraq must make visible, concrete progress toward meeting the political, economic, and military benchmarks enumerated in the preamble to this Resolution.

Wow. That's telling them.

If you're waiting for more, I'm afraid that's it. In other words "On your way, Mr. Bush, you're doing just fine without any meddling from Congress."

In case you're wondering, the overall description of that wacky maverick's resolution is this: "Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Commander of Multinational Forces-Iraq and all United States personnel under his command should receive from Congress the full support necessary to carry out the United States mission in Iraq."

I don’t know what that means either, given that their only "mission" is to survive being plunked down in the middle of a civil war and the only people not giving the troops what they need have been Congressional Republicans and the White House.

And it's a stellar crew joining McCain as cosponsors: Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Cornyn (R-TX), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Pete Domenici (R-NM), John Thune (R-SD), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Pat Roberts (R-KS) and -- get ready for the other shoe to drop -- Joe Lieberman (WeDon'tKnowWhatHeIs-CT).

So there you have it… Stay the course. Don’t challenge the president. Ignore the American people. Send more troops to die for nothing.

Now, that's an Iraq resolution Republicans can get behind.