Gee...You Think?

With this proclamation, Senator Chuck Hagel wins this week's Counselor Troi Award for Most Blatantly Obvious Commentary.

"We should start figuring out how we get out of there," Hagel said on "This Week" on ABC. "But with this understanding, we cannot leave a vacuum that further destabilizes the Middle East. I think our involvement there has destabilized the Middle East. And the longer we stay there, I think the further destabilization will occur."

Hagel said "stay the course" is not a policy. "By any standard, when you analyze 2 1/2 years in Iraq ... we're not winning," he said.


Naturally, another GOP senator, Mark "Party Line, All the Time" Allen, disagrees. Like Hagel, Allen is considering a 2008 run. If we are (God forbid) still in Iraq by 2008, expect to see a lot GOP nominees duking it out over the Iraq issue.

Last week, Senator Russ Feingold was pushing for a deadline for US withdrawal from Iraq--preferably December 2006. I liked an earlier proposal he had: identify goals in Iraq, figure out how to meet said goals, and come up with a timetable for withdrawing troops. Don't know how effective a timetable would be, but Feingold seems to be one of the few people in Congress (and the only senator) suggesting anything remotely resembling an exit plan.

Feingold never supported this war to begin with, so it's only fitting that he now supports a deadline.

Man, the more I read about Feingold, the more I respect the guy. If he runs, he's got my vote.

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