That’s what Harry Reid and the Democrat freak show’s little publicity stunt was really about last night. Although, not in the manner you’re thinking. You see, the Democrats were advocating for an amendment that would dictate that our troops pull back to isolated bases, train the Iraqi security forces, and conduct occasional search and destroy missions. But, that’s what we were doing before the Senate voted unanimously to send General Petraeus to command the troops in Iraq, and before he instituted his – so far – successful COIN strategy. Of course, there are other problems with the amendment, the worst being that it is unconstitutional. The Senate doesn’t have the authority to dictate war strategy. They don’t even have the authority to dictate when the troops come home. The only thing they have the authority to do is cut off funding for the war, and our troops in the field.

Also, in regards to the little publicity stunt / pajama party last night, Senator McCain gave an excellent speech about what’s at stake right now. Here’s the money quote:

Mr. President, we have nearly finished this little exhibition, which was staged, I assume, for the benefit of a briefly amused press corps and in deference to political activists opposed to the war who have come to expect from Congress such gestures, empty though they may be, as proof that the majority in the Senate has heard their demands for action to end the war in Iraq. The outcome of this debate, the vote we are about to take, has never been in doubt to a single member of this body. And to state the obvious, nothing we have done for the last twenty-four hours will have changed any facts on the ground in Iraq or made the outcome of the war any more or less important to the security of our country. The stakes in this war remain as high today as they were yesterday; the consequences of an American defeat are just as grave; the costs of success just as dear. No battle will have been won or lost, no enemy will have been captured or killed, no ground will have been taken or surrendered, no soldier will have survived or been wounded, died or come home because we spent an entire night delivering our poll-tested message points, spinning our soundbites, arguing with each other, and substituting our amateur theatrics for statesmanship. All we have achieved are remarkably similar newspaper accounts of our inflated sense of the drama of this display and our own temporary physical fatigue. Tomorrow the press will move on to other things and we will be better rested. But nothing else will have changed.

In Iraq, American soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen are still fighting bravely and tenaciously in battles that are as dangerous, difficult and consequential as the great battles of our armed forces’ storied past. Our enemies will still be intent on defeating us, and using our defeat to encourage their followers in the jihad they wage against us, a war which will become a greater threat to us should we quit the central battlefield in defeat. The Middle East will still be a tinderbox, which our defeat could ignite in a regional war that will imperil our vital interests at risk there and draw us into a longer and far more costly war. The prospect of genocide in Iraq, in which we will be morally complicit, is still as real a consequence of our withdrawal today as it was yesterday.

Hat Tip: Captains Quarters