It’s official: the Democratic Party has married its political future to American military defeat, voting 218-212 in the U.S. House of Representatives today to send a gift telegram to Islamist terrorists and Iraqi insurgents. Trapped in their political bubble, Congressional Democrats have convinced themselves that the United States can’t prevail in establishing even a measure of stability in Iraq and thus are working to fulfill their own hand-wringing prophecies:
“The American people have lost faith in the president’s conduct of this war,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “The American people see the reality of the war, the president does not.”
I’m left to wonder if Pelosi and her cohorts didn’t come away from the last election with the wrong message. I’d like to think most Americans aren’t as poorly informed as the high school students at a Denver anti-war rally interviewed by 850 KOA and replayed on this morning’s Mike Rosen Show (50 U.S. soldiers killed per day?? Kids are being drafted to go fight in Iraq??). It wouldn’t matter, anyway: the Capitol Hill Democrats get their pulse of the nation from the Daily Kos and Huffington Post.
(Picture courtesy of the Victory Caucus)
How ironic that this vote should come at the same time that a new commander’s tenure and a revamped strategy are underway, showing early hopeful signs. The eminent Victor Davis Hanson delivers a history lesson worth considering: “Can General Petraeus turn war around in Iraq?” Too bad the Democrats were too busy passing notes in class.
If you want to get an on-the-ground perspective of events in the region, read Michael Yon, Bill Roggio (The Fourth Rail), or Omar at Iraq the Model. Looking for a few examples of reports you won’t see on your nightly news? Look here and here and here from this week alone.
But don’t expect Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, or Barney Frank to take a serious look. The Defeat-ocrats (aka the Party of McGovern, or the New Copperheads) remind me of the small, petulant child who sticks his fingers in his ears and mutters loudly: “I can’t hear you. We’re losing. Nuh-uh. We’re gonna’ lose. La, la, la, la, la, la! I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!!”
It’s been a tough haul in Iraq, and things certainly haven’t gone according to plan much of the way. Progress has been too often slow and sporadic. For too long, our military operated with one hand tied behind its back. But genuine changes have been made in tactics and deployments, and the surge of troops has showed troublemakers like al Sadr and the Mahdi Army that the United States means business.
If you disagree with what the U.S. House of Representatives did today (or what the Colorado legislature did last week) and have yet to join the Victory Caucus, now is the time.
Iraq…
…