Politics & Power Quote by Jim Clyburn

The line leads with an unassailable premise: support the troops. That’s not just sentiment; it’s tactical positioning in a post-9/11 political culture where questioning the Iraq War could be recast as disrespecting the people fighting it. Clyburn’s opening clause performs a shield move. By praising “extraordinary effort,” he borrows moral authority from the soldiers’ sacrifice before pivoting to the real target: the mission itself.

“Fulfill the mission they have been given” is quietly loaded. It redirects responsibility upward, away from enlisted bodies and toward the civilian architects of the war. The subtext is blunt: if the mission is unclear or impossible, don’t blame the troops for failing to deliver victory. Blame the leadership for sending them into a fog.

Then comes the bipartisan offer that’s also an indictment: “Democrats will work with this Administration to better define that mission and a realistic expectation of success.” The phrase “better define” implies the mission hasn’t been defined well enough to justify the costs. “Realistic expectation of success” is the scalpel. It signals that existing expectations are inflated, possibly dishonest, without calling anyone a liar on the record.

Context matters: this is the Democratic leadership’s needle-threading during the Iraq years - resisting open-ended war while avoiding the political trap of appearing anti-military. Clyburn uses unity language to create permission for skepticism, reframing critique as duty to the troops rather than opposition to them.