Of course he did, the War on Terror has always made the left uncomfortable. It is the antithesis of all that they believe. The only reason many on the left gave the appearance of supporting it is that after 9/11 they would have been ran out on a rail if they had actually said what they truly believed.
In the mind of many on the left the War is an over reaction - 9/11 was just a crime and there should be an arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators. Forget about any other terrorists or terrorist organizations, they weren't responsible for 9/11. Our over reaction is causing every ill in the world and this causes more angst then terrorists. Because of this there is no fear that terrorists might follow us home if we leave Iraq before the mission is complete because the terrorists are just freedom fighters reacting to our presence.
This combined with the left's global guilt over every action civilized man has committed over the millennia leads some to fall for the easy lines like, Bush Lied, Bush stole the election, or the entirely false Wilson/Plame issue.
With that said I have to share my greatest frustration with the Bush administration and it is a trait the President copied from his father. The utter surrender to the left and the leftist drive by media, and sometimes I can't blame him.
GWH Bush gave up after 3 years and lost the election because he was too Presidential to brag.
GW Bush gave up after 4 years when we need him the most and it has frustrated the hell out of me as I am sure the drive-by media frustrates the President.
There is no reason conventional (read: usually wrong) wisdom should be that the President lied us into war or that our troops did not have the proper equipment. In the real world, you DO go to war with the army you have, to paraphrase Rumsfeld, and that would have been reported as a fact not as another club to be used to beat a nation into submission.
So what is the solution, how do you get out a message when common sense is non existent in today's media and the left in the Democrat party?
The President and his team decided to give up, perhaps an attempt to gain from the unchallenged loons on the left? (Just as Clinton did during the Lewinsky scandal.) The left does tend to implode under it's own lunacy, however the administration needs to stop being so polite and call a spade a spade. Being Presidential is great, but our long term survival depends upon us getting this part of history right.
I don't know, all I know is that it has pissed me off!
More:
The NY Post takes Reid to task for his actions in a great piece :
DKKThe problem, said Reid, is that "George W. Bush is still the commander-in-chief - and this is his war."
And there's the real problem: From the start, Reid and the Democrats have seen the war in Iraq as a partisan opportunity.
They refuse to present a unified front to the rest of the world - especially to America's enemies - because, in their pinched view, to do so would be to weaken their own prospects for retaking the White House in 2008.
No, Reid didn't repeat his declaration of defeat during yesterday's speech from the Senate floor.
It probably has dawned on him just how big a political blunder he committed - witness Sen. Chuck Schumer's gentle contradiction of the majority leader over the weekend, insisting that "the war is not lost."
Then again, Reid didn't have to repeat his original remarks - because the imposed timetable he announced, if enacted, would bring about precisely the same result.
That is, a precipitous U.S. withdrawal from the region - if Reid thinks the bug-out would stop at Iraq, he's dumber than he sounds - followed by:
* A rapid, al Qaeda/Iranian-driven descent into regional chaos.
* Most likely, a general war.
* And, almost certainly, a Mideast nuclear-arms race as Saudi Arabia, Eygpt and (probably) Turkey rush to arm themselves in anticipation of an Iranian bomb.
At the very least, Reid has to understand that his rhetoric can only encourage short-run insurgent attacks on Americans in Iraq.
Their blood stands to be on his hands.
And that's a terrible price to pay for a political payday that's so tentative that even an instinctive gut-fighter like Chuck Schumer recoils from the risk.
Harry Reid needs to put a cork in it.
Today.