Yesterday, the Democrats got together with some retired generals who've been highly critical of Sec. Rumsfeld's handling of the Iraq War. The generals spoke before the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, but, as the Washington Post's Dana Milbank notes, they also delivered a message the Democrats didn't want to hear.
But Democrats, while celebrating Batiste's criticism of the administration, exercised some selective listening at the hearing when Batiste and his colleagues offered their solution: more troops, more money and more time in Iraq. "We must mobilize our country for a protracted challenge," Batiste warned. "We better be planning for at least a minimum of a decade or longer," contributed retired Marine Col. Thomas Hammes. "We are, conservatively, 60,000 soldiers short," added retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who was in charge of building the Iraqi Security Forces. That last remark caused Schumer to shake his head, indicating he was not so sure. And, indeed, the retired officers' recommendations were off-message for the Democrats. Six of the seven Democrats at the hearing supported legislation calling for the start of a troop withdrawal from Iraq this year. One, Richard Durbin (Ill.), voted for the pullout to be mostly complete by next summer.
Is any of this cited on the Democratic Policy Committee website or in the press releases put out following the "hearing"? Not a chance. On troop levels the generals have a point, as the National Review's Rich Lowry and the Standard's William Kristol explain here.