SOUNDING OFF:There will be time for partisanship later

Frank Barbaro isn’t pleased with our president and his plans regarding Iraq (“O.C. should surge against President Bush,” Thursday). That’s not terribly surprising, given that Barbaro is the chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party. Barbaro wants Orange County Republicans to join his Democrats and any independents he can round up to “surge” against President Bush’s plans to send 21,000 more troops into Iraq in what appears to be a last-ditch effort to finally prevail in that conflict.

Well forgive me, but I’m kind of confused. Democrats are unanimous in condemning Bush’s plan to succeed in Iraq before the plan has been put into place. They’re unanimous in stating that it cannot work, even before it’s been given a chance to work.

On Wednesday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee members, including all the majority Democrats (and a couple of Republicans who might run for president), voted in a nonbinding resolution to condemn Bush’s plan as untenable, unworkable, undoable and un-American. Yet on Friday, the Senate unanimously voted to confirm Lt. General David Petraeus, the architect of Bush’s “New Way Forward” plan, as the new commander of coalition forces in Iraq. That unanimous vote (81 of the 100 present) included all the Democrats who the day before had voted to condemn the plan.

Let’s review. Democrats are against the plan but voted unanimously to confirm as commander the general who wrote the plan. Can you say disingenuous? Do you think there might be just a little bit of partisan posturing going on here? Could it be that those noble senators are trying to have it both ways?

It’s a generally accepted fact that a considerable number of Islamo-fascists are doing their very best to kill every American, including Democrats and independents. Now might be a good time to give our collective support — even if it’s through clenched teeth — to the president and his generals and staff to try to win this war. I believe there will be plenty of time in the future to engage in hyper-partisan opportunism such as that displayed by Barbaro.

is a Costa Mesa resident.