A Great Time For Partisanship

By BlackJack

There are often times when a bipartisan effort is called for, when the right and left come together somewhere in the middle. We haven't seen many bipartisan efforts over the last 6 years for good reason - the polarization is Washington has been greater than at any time in recent memory. The current Israeli crisis is not a time for bipartisanship.

When Bush was ramping up to the Iraq invasion, the Democratic faction on Capital Hill dropped the ball miserably and by and large fell in line with the right-wing without question. If ever there was a time to question the administration that was it. Many of us on the left were calling for someone to step up and, unfortunately, not many did.

Now, as Israel faces violence from the north and south, the left needs to stand strong on calling for restraint. With our military already involved in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and our so-called diplomatic corps working overtime on the situations in North Korea and Iran, we need to be very cautious in committing forces to another battlefront.

I hope our Democratic representation will be a voice of reason and caution - for the fist time in a long while. If not we risk destabilizing the entire middle-east, bankrupting our nation and (worst of all) putting even more of our young men and women in a no-win situation.