Now Is Not The Time For A Vacation

Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

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I was in my office reading the newspaper one day last week when I heard someone on one of the cable networks say, "Vice President Cheney urged the Iraqi parliament to abandon plans for a two month summer vacation."

I guess I should have heard about it before, but somehow I hadn't and it hit me with a jolt. I mean who could be serious about taking two months off while people – Americans and Iraqis – were dying just beyond the parliament door.

But then I heard the television reporter say the Vice President had told the Iraqis that with so much at stake, "any undue delay would be hard to explain."

I've got a couple of issues with the vice president but I am with him on that one.

Big time.

We have a sharp debate going on in our Congress about whether to bring our troops home from Iraq. I buy some of those arguments, some I don't.

But I haven't heard a better argument for withdrawal than the Iraqi parliament's decision to take a vacation in the coming weeks. That makes the case far better than "our poor power to add or detract," to quote another American wartime president.

The idea that the Vice President of the United States would have to go to Baghdad to urge the Iraqis not to take a vacation is ludicrous in itself. If the Iraqis think the American people will put up with that, I'm sorry, they better think again.

I'm not sure even the President's strongest supporters would put up with that.

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E-mail Face the Nation.

By Bob Schieffer

[toddpw01]

Read the international press. The US press has forgotten how to do real journalism.

[toddpw01]

Remember this is the same Iraqi parliament that is pretty close to voting yes on a resolution asking us to leave their country.

Also if you bother to read the international press, just about everyone else thinks we are determined to have our puppet regime in Iraq pass an oil law that signs away most of their future profits to Western oil companies. Why else would we put 14 permanent bases in Iraq already?

And why would we remove all our troops from Saudi Arabia -- something we've basically done in no other country ever? Oh yeah-- it was one of bin Laden's demands. What a coincidence!

[tibu987]

While the U.S. is fighting Iraq's sectarian battles(we shouldn't be), the Iraqi's want a two month vacation.
How ludicrous.
I believe that the Iraqi hierachy's pockets are full of U.S. money siphoned off from numerous projects in Iraq, including stolen oil, They need to go to Paris or London to spend their ill gotten gains while they have it.
Just a thought.

[bluestardad]

STAY THE COURSE VOTE REPUBLICAN!

[tbweb]

You would think that some things are so obvious that they don't need to be said. But obviously things are not that obvious to the oblivious Iraqis! Oblivious in the context that the Iraqis just don't get it and continue to don't get it because of completely cancelling their 2 month vacation they reduced it to 2 weeks. Iraq is literally in an emergency state of affairs with its own government suffering a suicide bomber attack during a session inside the Green Zone just recently ending in death to its members. The obvious to everyone who even cares at this point is that the conditions inside Iraq are not vacation friendly conditions. Even more to the point, how can any Iraqi politician relax and enjoy themselves on a vacation while the nation of Iraq is under daily attack with hundreds of people dying every week? Can you imagine the political opposition ads against these people in the next Iraqi election if Iraq is even around as nation for a next election with this vacation minded group leading.

[se sanders]

A vacation while Iraq implodes is outrageous. But I guess it's perfectly okay with Bush!

[se sanders]

Unbelievable! How can they take a vacation at a time when so many decisions have to be made? I totally agree with Mr. Schieffer.

[feelfree1]

kstrisha,

Re: "Great post FeelFree1"

Thank you.

Re: "Why not take a vaction, it may be the last one that they get."

Indeed.

Cheers!

[sjc_1]

The "let them fight it out" argument falls apart when you consider the Saudi pledge to enter the situation if the U.S. pulls out and the likelihood of the Iranians becoming involved on the other side. Throw in Syria for good measure and you have a bigger mess than the one that is their right now. This is a bad mess that should have never happened, but it has. Now it is up to us to make sure that it turns out right. After all, WE invaded THEIR country.

[kstrisha]

Bush + Cheney = Permanent Vacation

They never planned on getting this INVOVLED in Iraq in the first place. Remember..."Mission Accomplished" was announced just after the invasion years ago.