Most Democrats seem so invested in defeat in Iraq that they apparently have
no "Plan B," which would be success.
Like the character Billy Bigelow in the musical "Carousel," who is
dumbstruck when he realizes he has not thought about the possibility that
his pregnant wife might actually deliver a girl, instead of the son he
wants, Democrats appear unable to conceive of victory, or at least stability
in Iraq.
So cynical have our politics become that a spokesman for Speaker Nancy
Pelosi said Democratic leaders are "not willing to concede there are
positive things to point to" in Iraq. And House Majority Whip James E.
Clyburn said that a favorable report from Gen. Petraeus could lead 47
moderate to conservative "Blue Dog" Democrats to oppose a withdrawal
timetable, making it virtually impossible for the liberal leadership to pass
withdrawal legislation. "(It would be) a real problem for us," said Clyburn.
Is that what the Iraq war has become? Instead of viewing it as a
generational war that will determine the future of civilization (because, if
we lose, Iraq will become a launching pad for terrorist acts around the
world and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis would surely die), is it now just
another tool in the Democrat's quest for the White House? Where are the
statesmen who put their country and its interests before personal and
political interests? Was Harry Truman right when he observed, "A statesman
is a politician who has been dead for 10 or 15 years"? Aren't we Americans
before we are Republicans or Democrats? And don't we all lose if one
political "side" wins and it costs others their freedom and puts America in
greater peril?
Much of Washington is buzzing over a recent New York Times column by two
scholars from the Brookings Institution, Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth
Pollack. In addition to their association with a left-of-center think tank,
the two have credibility because they have been harsh critics of the way
President Bush has directed the war.
Their column, which was titled "A War We Just Might Win," expresses
something we haven't heard in several years: optimism. "We are finally
getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms," they write. This
surprised them and they saw "the potential to produce not necessarily
Œvictory,' but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could
live with."