What is good for the goose-is good for the gander.

James Webb announced his retirement from the Senate today. It is hardly surprising, and probably not unexpected.

Phib and the others tend to view Webb as not having accomplished anything. They are wrong-about that and about Webb.

Let’s look at what Webb did accomplish. First he got passed, something George W. Bush’s hack defense Secretary and his deputy for Personnel could not get done-a fair and revamped GI bill for the generation that is stuck fighting the mistaken wars that Bush and Rumsfeld created. Did Dr Chu think about that-or for that matter about doing anything else that supported the serving Soldier, Airman, Sailor or Marine? Nope. Could not be bothered.

Furthermore-unlike some of the tough talking members of the tri-corner hat wearing brigade, Webb actually endorsed positions that supported military people. He defended Tricare and he’s advocated a restructing of our criminal justice system.  He sponsored an amendment to give troops adequate turnaround time between deployments-which would have put a nice hole in the Army’s warped 15 month deployment schedule or the Navy’s stupid FRP program. Webb defended it on the Senate floor:

Unlike many of his Democratic compatriots-he came out against the war in Iraq, even before the invasion, writing in 2002, that “In Japan, American occupation forces quickly became 50,000 friends.  In Iraq, they would quickly become 50,000 terrorist targets.  “

The next seven years proved him right about that.

Some of Phib’s more ardent commenters are fixated on a relatively minor incident in 2006 where Webb supposedly “snubbed” George Bush regarding the war in Iraq.  Some, say that Webb was “disrespectful”-I’m damned if I know how, especially when he said quite correctly, that he wanted his sons home from Iraq.  At the time I wrote differently-but I agreed with Webb’s sentiments. And that he was dealing with a buffoon.  He simply did not want to have a conversation with the man who created a mistake that could very well kill his son-that’s a very understandable sentiment. As he said, Webb later remarked in an interview, “I’m not particularly interested in having a picture of me and George W. Bush on my wall”.  
What’s not to like about that? I have the same sentiment. And he is still right about Iraq:

Five months before the invasion, I was trying to warn that if you weren’t careful, you were going to (1) empower Iran; and (2) get us stuck in Iraq for the next 30 years.  There are always going to be sectarian difficulties in Iraq.  My view is that we do not belong as an occupying power in that part of the world and that 50,000 troops won’t hack it.  We really need to reach the point where we have withdrawn our military from Iraq.  The difficulty of course is that you can’t withdraw in a way that would further destabilize the region.  But we need to withdraw, and we need to signal that is our clear objective.

Was he a straight party line Democrat? No. No more than he was a straight party line Republican.

Webb’s critics, Phib included, just can’t forgive him for being right about Iraq. His term is about average for a freshman Senator-and as the beneficary of one of his signature pieces of legistlation- I have a generally favorable opinion of him. The country needs a lot more Jim Webb’s and a lot less Rand Paul’s.