Editorial: Flunking a lesson in civics

Monday, Jan. 29, 2007 | 7:26 a.m.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates illustrated his need for a civics lesson last week when he said that an effort under way in Congress to oppose President Bush's troop increase in Iraq "emboldens the enemy."

In Gates' twisted image of democracy, members of Congress who disagree with the president's war policy are supposed to keep mum, because to do otherwise encourages enemy forces and makes the United States appear weak. In reality, of course, a representative form of government in which lawmakers openly question the decisions and policies of its executive branch shows that our nation is strong.

But there was Gates on Friday - in his first news conference since taking office Dec. 18 as defense secretary - seeking to trample those very rights and responsibilities by announcing, "It seems pretty straightforward that any indication of flagging will in the United States gives encouragement to those folks (Iraq's anti-government forces)."

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee passed a nonbinding resolution that opposes Bush's plan to send an additional 21,500 U.S. troops to Iraq. The full Senate is to debate it this week. According to an Associated Press report, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., who has authored a different resolution opposing the troop increase, explained that senators are "trying to exercise the fundamental responsibilities of our democracy."

That a U.S. senator has to give such a civics primer for the benefit of a top member of the president's administration is embarrassing. It is heartening, however, to see it coming from a Republican. The pool of Republicans who support the president's disastrous war policy is shrinking, and a growing number of them are opposing the troop increase.

Of course, the Bush administration has long struggled with working within the constraints of a government that is supposed to include congressional oversight. Bush can't just start a war and stay in it as long as he wants. The U.S. government doesn't work that way. Bush and Gates, however, just can't seem to understand that.