Sunday, June 19, 2005

Undermining the Will to Win

You would think that the Left would be deleriously happy that the Iraqi military is now picking up its share of the fighting in Iraq. This was, after all, one of the key factors touted by Kerry in his failed Presidential bid. We weren't training them fast enough, or well enough or enough of them, etc. etc.

Well, you would be wrong.

The Belmont Club looks at the recent claims by Daily Kos and other sites --who in their usual disparaging manner portray American forces in an evil light; and view Iraqi forces trying to rid their country of terrorists as "fresh meat". These Lefty blogs also have made various calculations that suggest (to them, at least) that the "insurgents" are winning the battle.

Wretchard comments:

The rate of Jihadi reinforcement into Iraq has been disappointing in comparison to that other benchmark, the Spanish Civil War. There are said to be 2,500 Saudis in Iraq: compare this to 30,000 International Brigaders who fought against Franco. And Saudi Arabia is next door. Things look bad for the insurgents across the board, because the Iraqi government can generate ten times a many soldiers in a few months. But the real uncertainty is American will. There's already a Congressional resolution calling for a timed withdrawal. The Press is referring to Guantanamo as Auswitchcz as if that were established fact. Little by little, note by note, the Mighty Wurlitzer is cranking out the Party Line.


What strikes me most is the way the Left is persistant in its attempts to capitalize on anything to justify their claim that the war is going badly for the U.S. Neo-neocon, for example discusses this issue in the continued use of words like "rebel" and "insurgent" to describe the" freedom-fighting "terrorists. She also comments on the use of the "rising toll" and "escalating violence" --which, notably, have been used to describe the situation for several years now, so if they are to be believed, we are now at incredibly high levels of death and violence. This is completely misleading (the rates have not increased substantially-but even if they had, the context of these increases is never mentioned), but you wouldn't know it if the only news you received about the war was from the mainstream media.

I am not claiming that there aren't challenges--especially in the asymetrical type of war we are fighting--but the truth is that there is no way we can lose this war on the actual battlefield.

This has been said over an over again by those who know and understand military operations. The question is do we have the will to win it? And that question brings me to what the Left does best. Chipping away at America's will to win.

It has been easy to do this. We have just had a week of unmitigated, calculated, and irresponsible belittlement of America's motives, behavior, and morality. Our military has been compared to Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. Our "loyal" opposition wants to get even for the Clinton years and stages a mock impeachment of the President during a war. Some members of Congress are calling for a resolution that would ask the President to come up with a specific timetable for withdrawal from Iraq--without a thought to the impact such a timetable would have improving the morale of the "insurgents" they seem to dearly love; while once again making soldiers in the field believe that there is little or no support for their valiant efforts.

I've just about had it with this kind of adolescent, irresponsible, and frankly psychotic behavior on the part of the Democratic party. They have lost all perspective and don't seem to care that they bear considerable responsibility for ripping the fabric of this society by their incessant, whining and power-hungry grabs for power.

No, it is clearly not enough that the number of American troops have decreased and will continue to decrease. It isn't enough that the Iraqis have now reached a point where they can fight for their own freedom with help from our soldiers. It isn't enough that the Iraqi people overwhelmingly came out to vote for freedom and have a say in the democratic process. It isn't enough that in the overwhelming majority of the country the news is good. It isn't enough that American casualties would have to go on for several decades at the rate it is now to even approach the loss of life that occurred in Vietnam.

None of this matters, because nothing the U.S. does is considered good. "Abu Ghraib!" "Guantanamo!" they yell like children who can't distinguish a mountain from a molehill because they themselves are so small and insignificant.

Take a look now at the sarcasm and disdain displayed by this editorial cartoon from Emad Hajjaj, at Al-Ghad Newspaper in Amman, Jordan.

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

You can see how closely the ranks of the Left parallel the ranks of who seek to portray America and the US Military as evil cowards, hiding behind the Iraqi people and Iraqi forces (gleefully so, according to the cartoon). Completely ignoring who it is that is responsible for targeting Iraqi civilians and fellow Muslims.

Anyone who remains in the Democratic Party today must face the reality that the party has aligned itself firmly with those who would love to destroy the U.S.; and each person must take responsibility for that.

It is not too late for someone--practically anyone--in the ranks of the Democrats to step forward and offer some constructive criticism of the War on Terror (all rational people would welcome that as a change of pace, if for no other reason).

But, until someone does, the frantic and hysterical undermining of our military and the will of the American people makes the Democrats stand squarely in the camps of the enemy.

UPDATE: Mark Steyn has some words to say about Senator Durbin's slandering of his own country. (hat tip: LGF)

Throughout the last campaign season, senior Democrats had a standard line in their speeches, usually delivered with righteous anger, about how "nobody has a right to question my patriotism!" Given that nobody was questioning their patriotism, it seemed an odd thing to harp on about. But, aware of their touchiness on the subject, I hasten to add that in what follows I am not questioning Dick Durbin's patriotism, at least not for the first couple of paragraphs. Instead, I'll begin by questioning his sanity.

Last Tuesday, Senator Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, quoted a report of U.S. "atrocities" at Guantanamo and then added:

"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings."

Er, well, your average low-wattage senator might. But I wouldn't. The "atrocities" he enumerated -- "Not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room" -- are not characteristic of the Nazis, the Soviets or Pol Pot, and, at the end, the body count in Gitmo was a lot lower. That's to say, it was zero, which would have been counted a poor day's work in Auschwitz or Siberia or the killing fields of Cambodia.


Check it out.

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