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Victory at all costs
One thing is certain; Democrats are not willing to accept defeat, no matter what. No, I’m not talking about the war in Iraq. I’m talking about their all-out offensive against the Bush administration. For them, defeat is not an option. George W. Bush must be brought to his knees, no matter what the cost.
Having already proven their resolve by hosting an all-night slumber party in the Senate, it seems Democrats are ready to raise the stakes. Apparently, even genocide in Iraq is now an option. MessNBC reports that Barack Obama “said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to solve humanitarian problems and that preventing a potential genocide in Iraq isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces there.” In other words, Obama is willing to accept genocide in Iraq if that’s what it takes to defeat W. This is the same Barack Obama who said “about 20,000 troops” should be sent to Darfur to intervene in what “is not only a humanitarian crisis, but also an issue of national security” (source, audio here).
Allow me to translate. In the “Party of the People,” genocide is a bad thing and the U.S. should stop it whenever possible. However, having George W. Bush as president is also a bad thing, even worse than genocide. So, genocide should be opposed *unless* it results from humiliating George W. Bush, in which case it is justifiable.
Victor Davis Hanson points out that the Iraqi bloodbath that would follow an all-out retreat, as Barack and his colleagues are calling for, is only one of our worries. Quoting Napoleon, he reminds us that in the military, “moral is to the physical as three is to one.” A full-scale retreat would embolden terrorists worldwide while, at the same time, crippling our own armed forces for twenty years or more.
If al-Qaeda is given free reign by an unprecedented U.S. retreat, the bloodbath won’t be limited to Iraq. Unlike the Viet Cong, al-Qaeda will follow our troops home. It will be our school buses and marketplaces that are being bombed. It will be our political leaders who are being assassinated. It will be our children who are being massacred. This, I would hope, is a cost that not even the Democrats are willing to suffer.