Levin still trying to snatch defeat from success

Carl Levin is apparently on his way to Iraq to tell Iraqi lawmakers that despite military successes in Iraq, he wants the U.S. out of the country immediately. Desperate to get the U.S. out of Iraq, regardless of the cost to the Iraqi people or the military gains that the U.S. has achieved, Sen. Levin realizes that success in Iraq will severely hurt his chances at reelection next year. The gall of his statements, implicitly acknowledging that the military situation is going very well, is just shocking. Here, in his own words:

"I'm going to try to see if we can't shift the attention of the American people from the report on the political situation since everybody acknowledges that it's the failure of the political arena and the political areas that are the cause of the ongoing violence in Iraq."

So, his argument goes like this: we're doing a good job making areas safe for Iraqi civilians and the Iraqi and international workers who are building essential infrastructure but we should abandon those efforts, allow Iraqis to suffer genocide and ethnic cleansing while giving Al Qaeda and various insurgent and ethnic groups a free hand to attack civilians. Nice. Not quite Barak Obama levels (genocide is an acceptable result of pulling American troops out of Iraq) or even Chris Dodd levels (ethnic cleansing should be actively pursued by the U.S. government to precipitate the withdrawal of American troops) but still galling nonetheless.

Senator Carl Levin to Tell Iraqi Lawmakers to Count U.S. Out of Civil War
Fox News

WASHINGTON - The chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services committee said he was leaving Wednesday for Iraq to tell its leaders that they must accept responsibility for their country.

"Folks, if you want a civil war in this country, that's your choice. Count us out of your civil war. We've been here four-and-a-half years," Democratic Senator Carl Levin of Michigan told reporters Wednesday during a stop at Michigan's statehouse.

Levin's comments came as the death toll rose to 250 following a spate of four homicide truck bombings in northwestern Iraq Tuesday, underscoring the difficulties in curtailing the steady stream of shooting and bombings that have become the soundtrack to Iraq's reconstruction efforts.

With Americans increasingly frustrated about the mounting U.S. deaths there, the U.S. Congress is awaiting a pivotal assessment due in September by Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus amid a fierce debate over whether to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.