Hewitt Blog

Maybe this will be provocative for some of our Senators/military strategists:

In every circle, and truly, at every table, there are people who lead armies into Macedonia; who know where the camp ought to be placed; what posts ought to be occupied by troops; when and through what pass that territory should be entered; where magazines should be formed; how provisions should be conveyed by land and sea; and when it is proper to engage the enemy, when to lie quiet and they not only determine what is best to be done, but if any thing is done in any other manner than what they have pointed out, they arraign the consul, as if he were on trial before them. These are great impediments to those who have the management of affairs; for every one cannot encounter injurious reports with the same constancy and firmness of mind as Fabius did, who chose to let his own ability be questioned through the folly of the people, rather than to mismanage the public business with a high reputation.

I am not one of those who think that commanders ought at no time to receive advice; on the contrary, I should deem that man more proud than wise, who regulated every proceeding by the standard of his own single judgement. What then is my opinion? That commanders should be counseled chiefly by persons of known talent, by those who have made the art of war their particular study, and whose knowledge is derived from experience, by those who are present at the scene of action, who see the enemy, who see the advantages that occasions offer, and who, like people embarked in the same ship, are sharers of the danger.

If, therefore, anyone thinks himself qualified to give advice respecting the war which I am to conduct, let him not refuse the assistance to the State, but let him come with me into Macedonia.

He shall be furnished with a ship, a tent, even his traveling charges will be defrayed, but if he thinks this is too much trouble, and prefers the repose of a city life to the toils of war, let him not on land assume the office of a pilot. The city in itself furnishes abundance of topics for conversation. Let it confine its passion for talking to its own precincts and rest assured that we shall pay no attention to any councils but such as shall be framed within our camp.

-- General Lucius Aemilius Paulus (229-160 B.C.), Rome.

(HT: Tigerhawk)

Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com

Read it here.  Sign up here.  Contact senators here. E-mail your friends and families and ask them to sign up as well and to contact Republican senators urging them to block Biden/Warner/McCain.

Then read Dean's column, which explains the rapid growth in support for the Pledge.  Here are the last few graphs, but read the whole thing:

FOR SIX YEARS, SERIOUS CONSERVATIVES have responded to every betrayal from a Lincoln Chafee or a Chuck Hagel with continued support for the organizations that enable them like the NRSC. This support in the wake of each and every disappointment said in effect, “Thank you, Senator. May I have another?” The cumulative result of this unconditional love has been Republican Senators concluding that their agenda mirrors those of their party’s activists – namely, that we all care about nothing more than the careers of our Congress critters.

On Thursday evening, Senator John Ensign, the head of the NRSC, appeared on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show. On the one hand, Ensign is an enviable position; Liddy Dole did such a wretched job of running the NRSC during the 2006 cycle, it’s almost unimaginable that Ensign won’t benefit from the inevitable comparisons between him and his predecessor. But on the other hand, Ensign is taking over the reins of the NRSC at a time when the chickens of six years of Republican Senatorial malfeasance are coming home to roost.

During his appearance on Hugh’s show, Senator Ensign warned Hugh and his listeners that litmus tests are a bad thing. With all due respect to Senator Ensign, he’s wrong regarding this particular litmus test.

The time has long since come when Republican voters should demand that their office-holders be serious about the war. The anti-surge resolution is a frivolous thing, a pathetic exercise in rear-end covering. While differences regarding the war tactics urged by the White House are fair game, nakedly playing politics with matters of life and death is not.

The sooner the Republican Party gets serious about the war, the better it will be for both the country and the party.

Americans who are serious about the war cannot tolerate the Biden/Warner resolutions, and sense in John McCain's attempt to produce another "Gang of 14" deal not seriousness but opportunism.  If Senator McConnell steps forward and simply declares these are not maneuvers worthy of a great country in a time of war, he will have the esteem and gratitude of those who are serious about the war.  He and the other serious senators might lose  --there might be 11 Republicans willing to expose themselves as defeatists who would join Democrats in  voting for cloture on the Biden resolution. 

But the Republican senators might actually wake up to the reality that the Republican Party supports victory in the war, and act accordingly.  The GOP senators ought to fight their political battles with at least one-tenth the effort for victory as the hundreds of thousands of Americans have fought real battles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My weekly Townhall column is up. It’s about a familiar topic in these parts, and drawing a lot of comments. Please check it out.

The other thing is that I’ll be appearing on John Kasich’s show on Fox News tonight. We’ll be talking about Jack Bauer, “24”, suitcase nukes and other fun things. Why are they having me on as the resident expert on these things? I guess it’s because I co-blog with the acknowledged Jack Bauer of the blogosphere.

Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com

The Pledge will keep running throughout the weekend, its signers continuing to try and get through to Republican Senate leadership with the message that now is the time to refuse to go along to get along with Senate Democrats. Now is the time to support the troops and thus to refuse cloture on the Biden resolution.

Please sign, and then take a look at the full blogroll, and then the state map.  Then make an effort to contact the key GOP senators, starting with Senator McConnell and Senator McCain.

You can't trust CNN, but reports are circulating there and elsewhere that the Republicans in the Senate will agree to cloture on the Biden resolution, trading a vote for the Biden resolution in exchange for a vote on an amendment offered by John Cornyn.  The fear is that there are 11 Republicans who will vote for cloture with 49 Democrats (Lieberman voting no and Johnson absent.)

My firm view is that this maneuver will be shocking to the GOP base, and not just the 21,000+ who have signed The Pledge. It will be seen, rightly, as an abandonment of the troops, an encouragement to the enemy, and an indication that the Senate republicans still lack the will to fight for anything except their seats.  The Republican senators urging " a deal" to allow the Democrats to get a vote on Biden without getting the 60 votes for cloture clearly do not believe General Petraeus or Secretary Gates or don't care about stopping an "encouragement to the enemy."  Instead of demanding that republican senators not vote for cloture, John McCain is joining John Warner in seeking a "compromise" on this issue, Gang of 14 style, that will end up handing the Democrats what they want --a victory on the Biden resolution. If Mitch McConnell agrees to this deal, he will be signaling the GOP base that nothing --nothing-- has changed in D.C. when it comes to the Senate Republicans.

What part of "encouragement to the enemy" don't the Republican senators understand?  They can stop the Biden resolution, or at least do the public the service ofilluminating which republicans are willing to join Democrats in providing that encouragement.  There is no valid reason --none-- to agree to cloture.

Senator McConnell's D.C. office is closed for the weekend, but you can reach his Louisville office at 502-582-6304.  The other contact info is below for Senators McConnell and McCain and the others in the Republican leadership.

Please spend some time this weekend reminding the Republican senators that they are not their to serve themselves.

UPDATE:  Read this exchange between an LATimes' editorial board member and Governor Bill Richardson, candidate for president:  They are discussing "worst case sceanriaos" for Iraq.

LAT: So Plan B is, Maliki doesn't do what you want, he says "I don't really care what you do"; the Mideast peace conference, everyone says, you know, "America's sort of a weak giant, on the run, and we actually don't like each other, we don't want to sit around and talk about it"; we just leave and the place descends into utter, horrible chaos?

Richardson: No, no, no. You link it to reconciliation talks, but Plan B has to be a diplomatic process that involves other nations sharing the load. I mean, if Saudi Arabia is saying "this is the worst thing in the world for the U.S. to leave," you know, what are you going to do about it? You gotta finance troops.

But I think eventually the best situation is a linkage. But if the linkage is not there, you know, the phased withdrawl, it has to happen. Because right now, it can't be any worse. There's a civil war going on. The Iraqi people want us to leave. So, you cut your losses.

LAT: The can't-be-any-worse argument was also very popular in 1975 in Vietnam, and Cambodians found out that it could actually get quite a good deal worse. Is that something that worries you? What do you build into that process?

Richardson: Yeah. It worries me, but how worse can it get?

LAT: Two million people killed in a genocide?

Richardson: Well, but you're assuming that our presence there has prevented that from happening. Our presence there has caused, I think, the civil war to accelerate. [...] Is our presence preventing this genocide? I'm not sure.

Any Senate debate on Iraq that goes on and on because the GOP refuses cloture will have a great impact on the war, because Democrat after Democrat will make inane statements like thisone, and their empty rhetoric and their inability to offer an alternative to sending reinforcements and victory will become clear.  The country needs the debate, and the GOP senators cannot allow the Biden resolution to come and go without as fierce a fight as possible.  The stakes are just too high for Senator McConnell to allow the GOP to fold.

 See also Major Mike's letter to Senator Gordon Smith.

An essay from an active duty officer with more than 25 years of service, addressed to his fellow USNA alum, Senator James Webb.

Senator Jim “Copperhead” Webb

Why did the new Democratic majority select Senator James Webb (D-VA) to give the Democratic response to the president’s State of the Union Address? Since when does this privilege fall to a freshman, even a freshman senator? It’s seems that despite the bad experience with nominating John Kerry to be their standard bearer in 2004, the Democrats have learned nothing. At least they recognize that they have a serious national security credibility problem but the leadership and the base simply cannot get beyond Vietnam. Hence, they asked a US Marine officer turned novelist, turned Navy Secretary, turned Democrat to present their--well, their opposition to all things Bush, because one certainly did not hear ANY tangible plans. Senator Webb is a graduate of my alma mater, the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. He is a highly decorated Marine from Vietnam who unlike Senator Kerry actually and definitively earned his commendations for bravery and valor in combat. His novels have sold very well because he is a very talented writer. But on close inspection, something about Senator Webb is very disturbing. Perhaps it harkens all the way back to his midshipman days in Annapolis and a simple boxing match lost. You see, James Webb lost a boxing match to a man he clearly despises, Oliver North. Webb, as chronicled by Robert Timberg in his best-selling book, The Nightingale’s Song, was heavily favored to beat North in the Brigade boxing championships but lost. Timberg claims that Webb believed he was intentionally denied the title by poor preparation from his coach, or more accurately the boxing coach made sure Ollie was better prepared to beat him! Regardless, Webb believes he was wronged and today we can see this streak of vengeance in him. More on this later.

I buried the lede yesterday. My bad.

In writing my FAQ about The Pledge, I obscured my mini-analysis of who the signers are. In fact, I made a grave error in making that part a mere min-analysis, for the composition of the list is actually a very big deal.

If you look to the left of the pledge sheet, you’ll see a ton of bloggers have signed it. Yes, there are a couple of joke names. For instance, I doubt that Mickey Mouse of Disney.com really has his yellow knickers in a twist over the resolution. But, and this is important, there are fewer “joke” names on this list than I’ve ever seen on any petition of its kind. The always amazing N.Z. Bear has been watching the list like a hawk; it’s a fair guess that at least 95% and probably closer to 99% of the names are genuine.

The list contains almost a comprehensive list of the right wing blogosphere’s royalty, or at least the royalty that isn’t pseudonymous. Glenn Edwards, the Captain, Hugh, Rick Moran – they’re all there.

But with all due respect to the above-named royals, they’re not the ones that really matter. Political bloggers are without exception extremely politically active. They’re also, almost without exception, big-mouths. In “The Tipping Point,” Malcolm Gladwell referred to people like bloggers as mavens – big mouths who arrogate to themselves the job of convincing others of something that they believe in. As Gladwell pointed out, sophisticated marketing campaigns target mavens. They’re force multipliers who spread the word. With this vote on the resolution, the Republican Party is turning a lot of mavens against them.

WHAT ARE THE REPUBLICANS THINKING? A significant chunk of the conservative base was so dispirited by the way the Republican Party had governed that it didn’t feel like voting in 2006. Thanks to the magic of Ken Mehlman’s GOTV program, most of them got to the polls anyway. Problem was, many of them pulled the switch for the Democrats out of protest. Whoops!

If the Republicans were smart, they would see the 20,000 signatures on the petition as something much greater than a leading indicator. Instead, they should whip out their abacuses (somehow I don’t figure this group using anything as new-fangled as a calculator) and do some figurin’. Blog readers are an enormously desirable demographic. You’re much better informed than the general public, considerably wealthier and, from my personal experiences, better looking to boot. Almost needless to say, blog readers are much more politically active than normal people, both in terms of giving donations and volunteering.

So let’s assumer, just for a minute, that the typical signer of The Pledge gives $450 per election cycle to the Republican Party candidates. I think this is a conservative figure, judging by the messages I’ve received in my inbox. Given that 20,000 people have already signed, up the GOP has already cost itself $9 million. Given the way this is trending, this will be a pop in the wallet that the Republican Party feels, unless it somehow figures a way to marry Teresa Heinz Kerry.

SO IS THERE ANY HOPE THAT Republican Senators will see the light? Personally, I doubt it. Certain Republicans, especially those who are up for reelection in’08, have been trying to figure out a way to distance themselves from the war since the calamity of 11/7. The non-binding resolution farce is their pet trick du jour.

But hey, look on the bright side. Many times over the past six years, we’ve all said if we’re going to have Republicans in office who behave the way these guys do, why bother? “These guys” are at this very moment sowing their own political demise. The Spirit of ’94 died in the GOP a long time ago. We should have known all along that the Senators and Congressmen who killed it weren’t going to be the ones to bring it back.

Compliments? Complaints? Contact me at Soxblog@aol.com

From the AP:

Four American soldiers were abducted during a sophisticated sneak attack last week in the Shiite holy city of Karbala, the U.S. military confirmed Friday. It said three were shot to death and a fourth was mortally wounded with a gunshot to the head when they were found in a neighboring province, far from the compound where they were captured.

How about a resolution, senators, denouncing the barbarians and guaranteeing certain justice? 

CNN is reporting that GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is supporting John McCain's resolution, even after Secretary of Defense Gates announced this afternoon that he agrees with General Petraeus that these resolutions "embolden" the enemy.

The GOP Senate leadership is dangerously close to destroying its credibility with a large portion of the base in the first month of the new Congress.  The 20,000 signatures and the accompanying blogroll on The Pledge are just a small indication of the deep antipathy within the party to undercutting the troops and the mission while encouraging the enemy, but it is loud enough and broad enough to understand its rejection to be a declaration by the GOP caucus of indifference to their supporters.

That Senator McCain is directing the collapse rather than declaring a refusal to abet any such resolution and demanding a filibuster of both the Biden and Warner resolutions confirms again that Senator McCain will does not want to lead the republican Party, he wants to command it.  That will not happen, and his repeat of the Gang of 14 fiasco may be the only good thing to come out of this episode.

Or perhaps Senator McConnell has not thrown in the towel.  Please call his office and those of the other GOP leaders and demand opposition to any resolution undermining the mission and the troops, and emboldening/encouraging the enemy:

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s phone is (202) 224-2541. His e-mail is here.

Minority Whip Trent Lott’s phone is (202) 224-6253. His e-mail is here.

Senator Jon Kyl’s phone is (202) 224-4521. His e-mail is here.

Senator John Ensign’s phone is (202) 224-6244. His e-mail is here.

You can contact John McCain's presidential campaign and assure them of non-support if his resolution is put forward by calling  (703) 418-2008 or by e-mailing here.

UPDATE: The exchange at the Pentagon today:

Reporter:  Mr. Secretary, Senator Lieberman says the Senate resolution opposing the 21,000 increase in troops would offer some encouragenment to the enemy.  Would you agree with  that?

Secretary Gates: Well, I think, I think its pretty clear that a resolution that in effect says that the general going out to take command of the arena shouldn't have the resources he thinks he needs to be successful certainly emboldens the enemy and our adversaries.  I think it is hard to measure that with any precision but it seems pretty straightforward that any indication of flagging will in the United States gives encouragement to those folks and I am sure that is not the intent behind the resolutions but I think it may be the effect. (emphasis added.)

I do not expect the Senate Democrats to care about what General Petraeus testified to on Tuesday, or what Secretary Gates asserted today.  Both have been confirmed by wide margins by the Senate, however, and GOP senators who voted for both need to stop the providing "indications of flagging will," in an attempt to make nice with their Democratic friends, gain some political cover, or save John Warner from embarassment.  Whatever their paper thin reasoning, the GOP sneators have to  say no to such reoslutions, and John McCain's "benchmarks" --which convey to the enemy the promise of support withdrawn from the government upon the failure to meet any of them--  plays right into the same messgae conveyed by  the Biden and Warner resolutions.

Back to Reagan's strategy for the Cold War and the resolution the GOP Senators should offer: "We win. They lose."