Posted by
David Jon on Monday, August 13, 2007 4:31:11 PM
What are we to think of a Democratic Party whose political success depends on the military defeat of the U.S. in Iraq? When the New York Times printed an opinion piece, “A War We Just Might Win” by Michael O’Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack of the liberal Brookings Institute, the left wing bloggers of Daily Kos went ballistic. Unfortunately for those of us that believe the United States of America is the greatest country in the world, the “Daily Kos”, along with “MoveOn.org”, is the Democratic Party.
The problem the Democrats are having is the tide of the war seems to be turning in America’s favor. They are finding themselves caught between “Iraq and a hard place.” The Democrats would still like to lose; but only if we can lose while under the Bush administration.
Democrat House Whip James Clyburn recently said if the forward progress being made in Iraq by General Petraeus continues, “that would be a real big problem for us.” For the Democrats who shun victory and desire defeat, progress in Iraq is very bad news indeed.
In light of the positive news beginning to come out of Iraq, the Democrats, who don’t make a statement or decision without seeing which way the wind is blowing, are gradually beginning to change their anti-war rhetoric. Not against Bush, of course, but on the war in general. A couple of months ago, Democratic presidential candidates were stepping all over themselves to see who could surrender in Iraq the quickest. Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinch won that race with a tie. They’d both be out of Iraq tomorrow morning.
Today, we are beginning to hear a different story from these contenders. A few days ago, Senator Dick Durbin of “Nazi, Soviet Gulag, Pol Pot regime” fame, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying American-led forces in Iraq were “making some measurable progress, but it’s slow going.” Not nearly enough for Mr. Durbin, of course. “As our troops show some progress toward security, the government of this nation is moving in the opposite direction. This is really unsustainable with the American people,” said Durbin. When the New York Times, who as done everything in it’s power to insure America loses in the war on terror, prints an opinion that maybe the US can win in Iraq, even blind Democrats have to stand up and take notice.
Sen. Joe Biden’s retort to Bill Richardson in the silly YouTube debate cut the knees off the “get out of Iraq now” crowd when he said a pullout of U.S. combat troops would take at least a year to complete, and that unless some U.S. troops remained in Iraq, all the American citizens would have to be evacuated as well. “You better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone [in Baghdad],” he said. “You better make sure you have protection for them, or let them die.”
Following Joe Biden’s admonishment and the recent results from the USA Today/Gallup poll that shows the percentage of Americans who believe the surge and additional troops in Iraq are working rose to 31% from 22% a month ago, leadingDemocratic presidential candidates have lost their “out of Iraq today” vehemence, and while still pandering to their loony left-wing base, have at least acknowledged quitting Iraq immediately poses serious consequences.
Unfortunately, no matter how good the news out of Iraq, it will never meet the bar set by Democrats, primarily because the bar gets raised every time a bench mark is met. Nevertheless, the progress being made in Iraq cannot be ignored. So while even the most anti-war Democrats like Dick Durbin are forced to concede “measurable progress” in Iraq and that the surge is working, it would not be wrong to suggest the Democrats will not be satisfied. After all, Iraq did not elect a Thomas Jefferson as president, the violence in Baghdad is still almost as high as Washington, DC, and the Iraqis have yet to build a Disney World.
Americans do not like to lose. With a Democrat led congress and a liberal media, America “lost” in Vietnam and lived with shame and malaise for the next two decades. Do we need to “lose” again just so Democrats can remain in power?