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In this issue
March 19, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: The Divine is in the details
JWisdom.com Stewards of sacrifice with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Why Obama is waging war on Israel
March 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Israel's New Enemy: America?
JWisdom.com Love me not? with Rabbi David Aaron (5 minutes)
Jonathan Rosenblum: Washington Throws a Tantrum
March 17, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Orwell, Santayana, and Me
Jonathan Tobin: How Many Lives Is Biden's Pride Worth?
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review June 21, 2006 / 25 Sivan, 5766

Feinstein's phased pandering

By Debra J. Saunders

Debra J. Saunders
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | How is America supposed to win the war in Iraq when so many partisans in Washington — including high-profile Democrats who voted for the October 2002 war resolution — aren't doing everything in their power to make sure America prevails in Iraq?

Many Washington Dems seem to have devoted the last month instead to answering the question: With friends like these, who needs enemies?

The answer is: Not U.S. troops. The "phased deployment" crowd — to use Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's euphemism for cut-and-run — does not seem to understand that when elected officials vote in favor of a war resolution, they assume a solemn responsibility to the troops who carry out their mandate. To wit, Congress is not supposed to follow a war vote with actions that undermine the war effort.

Yet that is exactly what Feinstein, who voted for the war resolution, is poised to do today as she introduces an amendment calling on President Bush to set up a timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops starting this year. Feinstein's cosponsors are fellow Democratic Sens. Carl Levin of Michigan, Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Ken Salazar of Colorado — although it should be noted that Levin and Reed voted against the Iraq war resolution, while Salazar was not in the Senate in 2002.

Feinstein explained in a press release that, after three years in Iraq, "an open-ended commitment is no longer sustainable." Sunday, she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "Three years and three months into a mission that was supposed to take 30 or 40 days. That isn't cutting and running."

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Partisan is the only word that can explain this measure. For one thing, the amendment is not even remotely necessary. Bush has said that he wants to pull out U.S. troops as fast as he can. Feinstein reminded Blitzer that Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie had "essentially set a timetable" when he told Blitzer the week before that there would probably be fewer than 100,000 multinational troops in Iraq by the end of the year, and that the overwhelming majority could be gone by mid-2008.

When both Iraqi leaders and the Bushies want to withdraw troops by 2008, if it is at all doable, why offer an amendment calling for withdrawal? The only reason: She wants her party to get the credit for ending the war, or she wants to rob the other party of the credit for ending the war.

The cost for this rank partisanship, should the amendment pass? American troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are fighting an enemy that believes America has no political backbone. Measures such as Feinstein's reinforce the belief that killing Americans pays off — as Osama bin Laden concluded after U.S. troops essentially fled Somalia.

Feinstein has argued that a timetable would scare the Iraqis into making things work. If she is wrong, however, her measure instead would serve to undermine confidence in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government, and thereby hinder efforts to stabilize a war-torn nation.

I want to be clear on this. Once a senator votes for a war resolution, the senator has not renounced his or her duty to criticize bad policies, nor does the senator forfeit the right to change his or her mind.

The senator, however, does have a responsibility to fight for victory — so that the troops who die abroad do not die in vain, or endure more fire because Washington pandered to voters' anxiety. They are risking their lives, and Feinstein doesn't even have the honesty to use the term troop withdrawal.

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© 2006, Creators Syndicate

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