Tim Ryan and the War on Terror

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2006/roll288.xml

The above link takes you to the results of a recent vote on a House resolution "declaring that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, [and] the struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary."

Our own Tim Ryan voted "Nay" on this resolution.

Does this mean that Mr. Ryan does not believe that the US will win the "War on Terror," that we will be defeated somehow by the terrorists?

Probably not.

First off, it's not quite clear how one can realistically declare victory in a war against terrorism. There will always be terrorists- always have been, always will be. We can prevent certain things from happening, foil specific terrorist plots, and keep known terrorist organizations under surveillance. But we can't "end" terror. Ryan and the 152 like-minded Congressmen who voted "nay" may be merely trying to state the obvious.

Also, this resolution is a pointless waste of time and effort. A "Nay" vote may reflect this line of thought. There are far more pressing issues to deal with - and resolutions are not meant to be opinion polls. "Will the Indians win the World Series?" is not an appropriate matter for Congressional debate. (The answer is "Nay," by the way.)

Finally, judging by the distribution of votes by party, it's likely that this was a bill introduced by the Republicans as a propaganda piece, a "the Democrats don't believe in America"-type thing. Those who voted against it may have done so as a dismissive gesture, choosing not to play along with the whole "ignorant patriotism/divine right" mentality of many current Republicans.

No matter what the reasoning was behind Mr. Ryan's vote, I guess it's good to see that he's not just blindly playing along.