The Turn - Defeatists In Retreat

by William Kristol - August 13th, 2007 (Publication Date) - The Weekly Standard

For the Iraq war's opponents, July began as a month of hope. It ended in retreat. It began with Democratic unity in proclaiming the inevitability of American defeat. It ended with respected military analysts-- [even]Democrats, no less!--reporting that the situation on the ground had had improved, and that the war might be winnable. It began with a plan for a series of votes in Congress that were supposed to stampede nervous Republicans against the continued prosecution of the war. It ended with the GOP spine stiffened, and the Democratic Congress adjourning in disarray, with approval ratings lower than President Bush's. It began with Democratic presidential candidates competing in their antiwar pandering. It ended with them having second thoughts--with Barack Obama, losing ground to Hillary Clinton because he seemed naive about real world threats, frantically suggesting that he would invade Pakistan.

Invade Pakistan? This is a realistic solution to the complexity of the middle east? It almost makes me wonder how much Obama was paid by the Clinton campaign to take this insane position so Hillary could look moderate in comparison.

In reality, the democrat insistence that this war is a simple problem of fighting just that minor part of the disorganized and ill defined movement of Islamofascists called Al-Quaeda, IS THE PROBLEM. We are at war with more than Al-Quaeda.

Both political parties are sending out strategies under labels that the America people do not realize are corrupt. George W. Bush calls it the war on terror, whatever that means. He says he doesn't want to offend "moderate" muslims. However none of the so-called "moderate" muslims have stopped attacking Bush long enough for clarity of what that means. Harry Reid, Howard Dean and Nancy Pelosi call it the war on terror too. However they don't mean war against everyone who wants to kill us. They merely mean war against that small element called Al-Quaeda. Anyone else who wants to kill us is considered "peace-loving" anti-war comrades since they also embrace the democrat party goal of socialism.

This war on terror "label" is useless for the simple reason that no one really knows what it means. It is being used by all sides to confuse the American people and hide exactly what this war is about. The opening quote above shows what I mean. The quote above starts with "For the Iraq war's opponents . . . ." What Iraq war? The war is against Islamofascism, not Iraq. George W. Bush's inarticulate stupidity in allowing the democrats to argue that we are not fighting one war, but several, and that one of them is against Iraq, shows why the America people are so confused.

We are in fact aligned with the democratically elected government of Iraq. The democrats argue that (though it is clear it was a "fair" election) because the former totalitarian Sunni's were ousted by military force they are the legitimate government of Iraq. The predominantly non Iraq based insurgency aligned with the former totalitarian elements that controlled Iraq for decades (both of which are opposed to America) are thus defended by democrats as being the "legitimate" government of Iraq. This argument is insanity. To argue we are aligned with an illegitimate government, as socialist forces all over the world argue, simply does not pass the stink test. In this one front, Iraq, in this global war, we are on the right side as much as we are on the right side in the overall war against Islamofascism.

We are in a war for survival against a movement that has been at war with us for a generation. The tone deaf George W. Bush can't seem to find a way to communicate this to the American people. The socialists in the democrat party are arguing against this view too, for very contemptible reasons, politics. They even argue we cannot win in this one front in Iraq, much less the whole war.

The democrats are wrong. We can and will win if we have the will to win. Our patriotic and magnificent troops are the reason. The only important question is whether we will give control of the executive branch of our government to the "defeatists" in the democrat party and allow them to abandon victory and declare defeat like they did in Vietnam. Next years elections are going to be very interesting.