Iraq Amnesty Resolution: Nice Going, Democrats

There's plenty of demagoguery from the Republicans these days; is it really necessary for the Democrats to offer their own?

On the day after the tortured bodies of two U.S. soldiers were found in Iraq, the Senate voted overwhelmingly to condemn the idea that Iraq's new government might ever grant amnesty to insurgents who have killed or wounded American military personnel.

The 79-19 vote on a nonbinding "sense of the Senate'' resolution offered by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., opened several days of debate this week on Iraq policy. Starting today, the Senate is expected to take up two Democratic resolutions, one calling for the withdrawal of all 130,000 U.S. military personnel by July 2007 and the other calling for a phased withdrawal to begin this year, but without setting a deadline for getting all troops out.

Politically, it's probably a winner. Amnesty for insurgents who kill U.S. troops is one of those things that sounds completely outrageous...and the Republicans are on the 'wrong' side. Understandably, the soldiers who serve in Iraq don't seem too thrilled with it. All of this makes it irresistible to some lefty bloggers, who have been all over it.

But that's the politics. Substantively, I don't see how anyone can defend the Nelson resolution.

Iraq is in a state of civil war. The odds against a political solution are pretty long. If they do manage to bring an end to the insurgency, any settlement will almost certainly involve some kind of amnesty for the insurgents. That's the way these things work. That's how it happened when a treasonous uprising against America was ultimately subdued: terrorists who had murdered Americans were given amnesty. I don't like it, but I have to acknowledge that it was necessary.

And yes, a lot of people chafe at the fact that the amnesty under discussion would have applied to Iraqis who killed American troops, but not those who killed Iraqis. I'm not wild about that myself...but if that's what it takes to get popular backing for a political settlement, what I think doesn't much matter.

Making a domestic (American) issue out of amnesty just makes any peaceful settlement that much more difficult. Spencer Ackerman has it exactly right:

So, way to go, Democrats: You've managed to reinforce the worst in Bush while doing something counterproductive to ending the war on decent terms--which, unlike the Nelson/Menendez resolution, would actually go a long way to protecting the lives of U.S. troops. Be proud.

[That's all, folks]