For me the debate actually started before the resolution was offered, when I went to the floor yesterday morning to speak for morning hour. After listening to two Republicans attempt to advance the Republican talking points, I simply could not contain myself and ended up literally casting aside my prepared remarks to challenge their nonsense that Democrats were somehow "staying the course". Most offensive to me was their claim that the retired admirals and generals, who have come out against the administration, are just disgruntled because they are no longer in the military. Outrageous!  The fog of the Republican smoke and mirror machine was already at work, and it revealed how desperate some were to avoid dealing with the fundamental choices we now face and the failure of their policies to date.

Yesterday we began the three days debate in which each member has a chance to have their say. In and of itself, this is an unusual dynamic. Rarely does Congress allow each and every member a chance to reveal what's on our hearts and minds.  Despite official Washington being shut down because of snow and ice, there was a full round of hearings and meetings going on here in Congress, and already there have been some interesting moments in the debate.

Did John Boehner really say that our struggle in Iraq started not when we invaded, or with 911, but when the American Embassy in Tehran was seized? That is not only wrong as a matter of history (how about picking when the United States overthrew the democratically elected Prime Minister in 1953 and instead installed the Shah as a dictator?), but what sort of message is he sending to the American public at a time when there is more and more nervousness about the administration's saber rattling against Iran? Is this all for another war that we can ill afford to fight!?

I stopped by the House Floor to get the flavor of the debate and hear Duncan Hunter, perhaps the most outspoken "hawk" in Congress. He was the author of the nonbinding resolution for an immediate pull-out from Iraq 15 months ago - a political maneuver which attempted to undermine the legitimacy of Jack Murtha's troop withdrawal proposal which Republicans didn't have the courage to allow Jack to present.  Hunter concluded his tortured defense of the administration and their misconduct of the war by invoking the ghost of Douglas McArthur, quoting from his farewell address.  What a telling moment. The imperious McArthur, whose miscalculation helped prompt Chinese entry into the Korean War, prolonging the conflict and costing thousands of American lives. I was shaking my head at this bizarre invoking of McArthur, whose arrogance and misjudgment are rivaled only by that of Donald Rumsfeld. Maybe using his words was more appropriate than I thought.

As luck would have it, the next speaker was Charlie Rangel.  Charlie is a Korean War veteran, whose wounds earned him a Purple Heart. I smiled as he recalled his personal experience as a soldier in November of 1950 when he was almost wiped out as a result of McArthur's blunder. The parallels were ironic. President Truman risking scorn and a firestorm of opposition at home when he fired McArthur, only to be later vindicated by history for doing exactly the right thing to his imperious commander.  It took years before history not only vindicated Truman, but ranked him in the upper reaches of our presidents.  Fast forward more than half a century to the Iraq war. Failure on the battlefield wasn't enough for Donald Rumsfeld to be fired; it required failure in the election to take that obvious step.  

It's going to be fascinating participating in this debate and experiencing vignettes like this.  One only hopes that the public and the press have a chance to step beyond the talking points to appreciate the dynamics in the new lessons of history.