When Losers Keep Losing

The Democrats continue to open the door into their own faces.

Here's a tip, guys. It's time to MoveOn.

US Senate Democrats lose on Iraq pullout plan

Frustrated U.S. Senate Democrats failed on Friday to force a troop pullout from Iraq, losing ground from an earlier vote and capping a series of defeats that reinforced the chamber's divide over the war.

The proposal's sponsors said they would spend the weekend crafting a compromise to try to attract more support, and denied they were wasting the Senate's time.

"We're not going to be discouraged," Michigan Democratic Sen. Carl Levin said. "There's no better use of the Senate's time than to try to change the direction in Iraq."

The Senate voted 47 to 47 on a plan by Levin and Rhode Island Democrat Jack Reed to require most U.S. troops to leave Iraq within nine months of the bill's enactment. That was far short of the 60-vote threshold needed to clear a Senate procedural hurdle and bring the bill to a final vote.

The loss was one of a string of Democratic defeats on the war this week. A Democratic proposal for a war funding cutoff was rejected on Thursday, and a plan to give U.S. troops more leave between deployments also failed amid criticism it would limit the military's ability to maintain force levels.

War opponents in the Senate have endured similar setbacks all year, but had hoped more Republicans would break with President George W. Bush this fall and embrace timelines for bringing U.S. troops home, or at least back other plans that challenged strategy in the unpopular war.

But the Republican minority in the closely divided Senate felt bolstered by a recent report from Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, who said some progress was being made.

They'll never get it.

More comment at Memeorandum.

Iranian Interference in Iraq

Developments continue with the news of Iranian meddling in Iraq. In the Washington Times, Bill Gertz has Iran Arms Iraqi Insurgents.

The report stated that the Iranians involved in supporting Iraqi extremists are members of the Qods Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, Tehran's Islamist paramilitary shock troops. The Qods Force is known to back terrorists throughout the Middle East, according to the 16-page report.

A senior defense official said the Iranian terrorist support is "coming from the highest levels of the Iranian government."

Much of the intelligence in the report was obtained in the past several months, including an identity card of a Qods Force member who was captured along with four other Iranian agents in a raid on the group's office in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil last month. The identity card bore the logo of the Qods Force.

"Over the last 60 days, Iranian and Iraqi detainees have told us that the Qods Force provides support to extremist groups in the form of money and weapons," the report said. "Their information included references to Iranian provision of weapons to Iraqi militants engaged in anti-coalition violence, as well as weapons and training to these same militants."

Naturally, Democrats were skeptical, seemingly siding with the Iranians, who would be happy to obliterate them after giving them a thankful pat on the head.

But congressional Democrats on yesterday's political talk shows were immediately skeptical on many points.

"Explosives seem to be flowing into Iraq from Iran, but does it stem from a deliberate government policy or rogue elements within the Iranian government?" asked Sen. Jack Reed, Rhode Island Democrat and Armed Services Committee member, on Fox News.

Both Democratic Sens. Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut and Ron Wyden of Oregon said they feared the Bush administration had doctored the intelligence to support a belligerent policy against Iran.

"I'm worried about that. That's how we got into the mess in Iraq," Mr. Dodd said on CBS, with Mr. Wyden telling CNN that "the administration is engaged in a drumbeat with Iran that is much like the drumbeat that they did with Iraq. We're going to insist on accountability."

No amount of evidence is going to convince the Democrats. Their Bush hatred clouds any better judgment.

Echoing the Democrats, the Iranians responded by rejecting 'baseless' US charges on Iraq bombs. At the same time, they're looking to roll the feckless Europeans once again.

Also related, Amir Taheri writes in the New York Post that Arabs Ally Vs. Persian Power: Countering Iran's Evil Ambition, noting a number of missteps by the Iranians.

The end game is coming sooner than people want to admit in this battle and the Democrats would be wise to watch their public statements. Should they rely more on the words of our enemies than the facts presented by our own intelligence, they are playing a very risky national security game.

UPDATE: Excellent Iran-Iraq roundup from Michelle Malkin.