Iraq Assessment Damaged By Bush's Vietnam

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Six months have passed since the time Rep. Paul Ryan offered his personal opinion on the U.S. troop surge in Iraq. Back then, Ryan said he needed three to six months before he could tell whether the surge plan would work. At least one other Ryan watcher noticed the expiration of Ryan's timetable a few days ago and beat me to the punch.

JS Online Excerpt:
"This whole thing is a big gamble, but it's probably the best gamble to take before throwing in the towel... "I personally give this three to six months to find out."..."In six months, if it's getting worse, then I don't think the plan will succeed, and we'll start talking seriously about pulling back our forces." -- Rep. Paul Ryan, Feb.22, 2007

On the surface it appears Ryan is open to commonsense thinking towards troop withdrawal, but I believe otherwise. His other comments were far more telling of his true feelings about America’s future role in Iraq.

Throughout the JS Online article from six months ago, Ryan parsed the surge plan as - the right strategy - praised Gen. David Petraeus,"right guy finally to do the job" and - labeled Congressional efforts to use the power of the purse as a "mistake." Of course those comments only reflect his own personal views and not the will of his district constituency here in Wisconsin, but we’ve grown accustomed to Ryan representing only himself and his ideology in Congress.

And it doesn’t help knowing now that Gen. David Petraeus has strong preformed ideas for Iraq shaped by his own arguments about Vietnam. Petraeus has been a fierce critic of the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, and the recent speech at the VFW by President Bush drawing skewed parallels between the two conflicts was a clear attempt to telegraph to everybody including Petraeus, that like Vietnam, withdrawal is an option only for weak-kneed Americans and “cut and runners.” This coming well before Petraeus has handed in his so-called assessment, setting the stage for a pre-determined outcome.So where does Ryan stand now? After six months we don't know, but we can expect Ryan will wait for the staged field commanders assessment from the “damaged goods” Bush-picked Petraeus. This, combined with his own personal views on the matter should guarantee his district's rubber stamp status to continue this war.

The table has been tilted a long time ago – clearly the game is rigged.