NYT on Bush v. Clinton

From the New York Times:


In May, Mrs. Clinton wrote Defense Secretary Robert Gates with a reasonable question: Had the Pentagon done any planning for withdrawal from Iraq? What she got back was a belligerent brush-off. Eric Edelman [the under secretary of defense for policy], saying he represented Mr. Gates, wrote that “premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq.”




Using such an insulting tone with a senator would surely lead to dismissal by any president who respected the Constitutional system of government. But so far, not this one. As for premature, most of the world thinks this pointless war has dragged on far too long. Public? We thought open debate — especially about such life-and-death issues — was a pillar of democracy. And as for the charge of reinforcing “enemy propaganda,” this is sadly business as usual for a member of the Bush administration.


[...]


The aim of these attacks is to avoid truly engaging criticism of Mr. Bush’s Iraq policy. So it was particularly galling to hear Mr. Bush accuse Congress of denying support to the troops because the initial Pentagon budget bill got snared in the Senate’s debate over Iraq this week and was not passed.




It is Mr. Bush who has denied the military what it needs, first by shortchanging the Pentagon on troops and armor and then by stranding American forces in a civil war with no achievable military goal and evaporating political support. Mr. Bush denied Americans a serious debate about starting this war. It’s far past time for a serious and honest debate about how to end it.