Once and For All
You may not believe this, but I try to avoid conflict whenever possible. And I’m not the type to encourage lobbing bombs and committing troops to far off places.
But we either have to withdraw completely from the current conflict in the Middle East…or finish the job once and for all. From a purely political standpoint, I think it’s time to do the latter.
And there’s time to do it, and do it right, without great impact on the November election; while that should not be a consideration in war planning, it does impact citizens and who they’ll send to Washington.
The House will not be back in session until the end of August. The Senate will be around next week, then out until September 14. By my count, that’s three week window with neither chamber in session, all members in theory far away from Washington.
That would be a perfect time to go in with all we’ve got, and have it finished before the House returns.
Given that the Senate is refusing to take up House-passed measures to limit the President’s power, the order could even be given next week. But regardless, the back-and-forth is starting to make us look bad. The other side cannot be trusted, and has a half-century-long record of acting in bad faith. Now that we’re in, we need to be “in it to win it”.
If we’re done with active strikes before Labor Day, then voters will likely have moved on to something else before casting a vote in the November election. That will be enough time for new issues to surface, for the economy to rebound—such as the dropping of gas prices and grocery costs, and for the military conflict to be out of the headlines. In our “what have you done for me lately” society, folks will quickly move on—but only if the war effort is over.
Again, I’m not for hurrying up foolishly. I’m not for rushing things just because of a calendar. But if we’re going to do something, then we should do it…because the delay is not serving any of our purposes.
