Feingold

A good piece about Sen. Russ Feingold and his courageous and clear stand on withdrawal from Iraq. (Hat-tip to Matt at Today in Iraq.)
The piece is all worth reading. especially this:

SENATOR RUSS Feingold has shattered a taboo as far as the war in Iraq is concerned. That taboo involves talk about ”completing the mission.”
No more. Says Feingold, ”It’s time for senators and members of Congress, especially those from my party, to be less timid while this administration neglects urgent national security priorities in favor of staying a flawed policy course in Iraq.
”We need to refocus on fighting and defeating the terrorist network that attacked this country on Sept. 11, 2001, and that means placing our Iraq policy in the context of a global effort rather than letting it dominate our security strategy and drain vital security resources for an unlimited amount of time.”
…
Feingold has become the first senator to put a specific date next to his call for a road map designed to complete the undefined US mission in Iraq. That is an oversimplification. Feingold is a notoriously precise speaker, and it’s worth letting him make his own case.
A great many conflicting signals have been coming out of the military and the Bush administration about the war in recent weeks — specifically the duration of our involvement and the size of our deployment over time.
In what he acknowledged was an effort to ”jump start” a national discussion, Feingold proposed setting a specific goal for bringing US forces home. His suggested date: the end of next year.

JWN readers will recall that i criticised that deadline here as “too late.” But still, I recognize the great contribution Feingold has been making by cutting directly trhu so much of the b.s. about “staying the course” with which the Bushies have so far succeeded in dominating the national discourse. (And actually, Feingold goes on to say that the deadline ‘ he calls for could be brought forward, or back.)
One of the other strong things about Feingold’s proposal is that he notably does not talk, as far as I can see, about any need for a “continuing force” in Iraq. In other words, the exit he seeks is total as well relatively speedy. Excellent.