Fred Upton Wakes Up

Good morning, Fred. How are you? Would like some coffee with your bagel shmear? Well, well, you had a nice long sleep. I hope you're rested up....because you have a lot of work to do, sir.

After rubber-stamping the Republican Party's War-A-Palooza over the last several years, my Representative in the House, Fred Upton (R-MI), recently broke ranks with his party and joined Democrats and only17 of 246 Republicans to disapprove of President Bush's decision to send more troops into the Iraq War. Upton decided to do the right thing and join the Democratic leadership to oppose President Bush's “surge.”

In his floor speech, Mr. Upton said that “... [Bush's] surge strategy will fail and only prolong the day that the Iraqis will finally pick up the baton and lead their own government. He continues:

Let's face it, this is a civil war, it is real anarchy. And, in fact, the Iraqis don't want us there. Nearly 80 percent of them in Baghdad say that American troops provoke more violence than they prevent. And those same polls show that Iraqis overwhelmingly want U.S. troops gone within a year. In fact, we know that a majority of both sides, Shia and Sunni, believe that it's okay to kill our troops.

Kudos to Mr. Upton for his (albeit delayed) insight.

I'll take Upton's change of heart at face value, although it reeks of political opportunism to back the president without expressing any serious reservation these last few years, then when the war and his party's Congressional majority is lost, he gets a “Hallaleuah” moment of epiphany.

But, Mr Upton, your work is hardly done. The Cheney administration is made up of recalcitrant warmongers who care little about the authority or advice from the Congress. You have been a large part of the disaster in Iraq merely by your blind acquiescence to your Party's policies. Now, you must summon all your creative powers to bring our soldiers home, and that entails much more than signing on to a non-binding resolution that stinks of political cover.

We'll be watching.