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THE DEMENTED DEMAGOGIC DEMOCRAT DESTRUCTION DERBY |
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Written by Tony Blankley
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Friday, 23 February 2007 |
Last month, Sen. Barack Obama called for our troops to leave
Iraq by March 2008. Last weekend, Sen. Hillary Clinton called for our troops to
start leaving within 90 days.
In this Demented Demagogic Democrat Destruction Derby
(military status: 5F) of American national-security interests, I suppose former
Sen. John Edwards, in an effort to hold on to his title of supremo anti-war
candidate, will have to designate it a crime against humanity that the troops
weren't pulled out a week ago last Friday.
Mrs. Clinton's husband had a campaign war room in the
election of 1992. Now she seems to have put up a quick prefabricated anti-war
room for her campaign 2008.
It seems almost pointless to engage in a serious policy
debate with a party whose leading contenders for the presidency are willing to
simply make up any preposterous national security policy in a contest of
one-upmanship targeted at winning the hearts and minds (if that is the word for
it) of their party's ready-for-institutionalizing edge of their lunatic fringe
voters.
Although, it has to be conceded that such lunatic fringe
voters may well constitute a majority of the Democrat Party's primary voters.
Meanwhile on the legislative front, congressman "Surrender
John" Murtha, according to even The Washington Post: "said he would attach
language to a war funding bill that would prohibit the redeployment of units
that have been at home for less than a year, stop the extension of tours beyond
12 months and prohibit units from shipping out if they do not train with all of
their equipment. His aim, he made
clear, is not to improve readiness but to ‘stop the surge'."
So why not straightforwardly strip the money out of the
appropriations bill, an action Congress is clearly empowered to take, rather
than try to micromanage the Army in a way that may be unconstitutional?
Because, Mr. Murtha said, it will deflect accusations that he is trying to do
what he is trying to do.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi subsequently seems to have
endorsed Mr. Murtha's self-admitted deviousness.
It has long been believed by many politicians that they can
engage the voting public in the game of Three Card Monte and consistently win.
(Three Card Monte is a con game in which the victim is tricked into betting
incorrectly on which of three face-down cards is the money card that was first
shown face up to the victim.)
Mr. Murtha has come up with the novel idea to try the game
of One Card Monte on the public. It is a sign of the awkward times we are in
that it is not yet obvious that the Democrat Party public will be able to pick
out the one card (out of the one card that is available from which to chose).
To add to the madness, the new argument one sees emerging
amongst the more enthusiastic war critics (easily recognizable in public by the
tin foil they wear on their heads), is that anyway there is not much of a
downside to leaving promptly from Iraq because President Bush's warning of dire
consequences are just more Bush "lies."
It doesn't seem to matter that this rationalization is being
made in the face of almost universal concurrence by experts of the high
likelihood of dire consequences.
Everyone from Democrat Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman Joseph Biden to the liberal Brookings Institute to fierce war critic
Gen. Anthony Zinni to every Middle East diplomat one talks to (Turkish, Saudi,
Jordanian, Israeli, Egyptian, et al) express the most profound concern for the
consequences of American forces leaving Iraq naked to the raging passions and
fears of the Middle East.
Given the fantastic pace and irresponsibility of the
Democrat presidential primary campaign, this emerging What-me-worry? view of
the day after we leave, probably will quickly become the de rigueur position of
even the recently sensible candidates.
There appears to be virtually no foolishly dangerous policy
proposal that the Democrat presidential candidates will not cheerfully and
enthusiastically endorse, if it will keep alive the slightest chance that they
may be able to squeeze their backsides into the purple on Jan. 20, 2009.
American voters at large should heed the warning: Power so irresponsibly sought is not likely
to be responsibly exercised.
Tony Blankley is the editorial editor of the Washington Times.
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