Comments on: Staying in the center while everyone else moves left http://www.yourish.com/2008/05/21/4842 Cutting straight to the point Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:14:34 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Michael Lonie http://www.yourish.com/2008/05/21/4842/comment-page-1#comment-32011 Michael Lonie Thu, 22 May 2008 05:04:57 +0000 http://www.yourish.com/?p=4842#comment-32011 The Iraq Campaign is an essential front in the war against the jihadist terrorists. To be against it is to be against the war as a whole. The Democrats want the US to surrender and lose the war, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They think this will bring them political benefits. They put their selfish partisanship ahead of ther good of the country. It's not only Bush who views it as the central front; bin Laden and Zawahiri do too. For one thing we must pit our big idea against that of the jihadists. Theirs is a worldwide caliphate where Muslims will lord it over the wretched dhimmis and get all the goodies for themselves, which will be their consolation for the oppression visited on them by the ruling Islamists. It is flattering and attractive to Muslims. We offer liberty and prosperity in the modern world, which is also very attractive, especially to thinking people. Lots of Iraqis like the idea of liberty after 24 years of Saddam and 50 years of various thug rulers, from Qassem onward. Iraq is the nexus where these ideas meet. The Democrats want to lose that struggle. Therefore they want to lose the larger war. Lieberman was purged from the Democratic Party for the sin of excessive loyalty to the USA. Do not delude yourself. As soon as we've run away in Iraq the same people will scream for us to run away in Afghanistan. (Before we sent any troops there the Left was staging big demonstrations protesting the war in Afghanistan. They included people calling for Israel's destruction, by the way.) Such pusillanimity will garner us no respect in the Middle East, and only contempt for cowardice. It will bring more and bigger terrorist attacks, for their strategy will have worked, won't it? Kill a few Americans and the country will run away like a sissy. Kill more and they will expect us to act even more cowardly. Kill lots and they will expect us to fold. Why not? We will already have done it before, if the Democrats run away from Iraq. That is the view the Democrats will confirm if a President Obama pulls out of Iraq. And if the leaders of the Democrats are even halfway as intelligent as they are reputed to be, they know it full well. The Iraq Campaign is an essential front in the war against the jihadist terrorists. To be against it is to be against the war as a whole. The Democrats want the US to surrender and lose the war, to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. They think this will bring them political benefits. They put their selfish partisanship ahead of ther good of the country.

It’s not only Bush who views it as the central front; bin Laden and Zawahiri do too. For one thing we must pit our big idea against that of the jihadists. Theirs is a worldwide caliphate where Muslims will lord it over the wretched dhimmis and get all the goodies for themselves, which will be their consolation for the oppression visited on them by the ruling Islamists. It is flattering and attractive to Muslims. We offer liberty and prosperity in the modern world, which is also very attractive, especially to thinking people. Lots of Iraqis like the idea of liberty after 24 years of Saddam and 50 years of various thug rulers, from Qassem onward. Iraq is the nexus where these ideas meet. The Democrats want to lose that struggle. Therefore they want to lose the larger war.

Lieberman was purged from the Democratic Party for the sin of excessive loyalty to the USA.

Do not delude yourself. As soon as we’ve run away in Iraq the same people will scream for us to run away in Afghanistan. (Before we sent any troops there the Left was staging big demonstrations protesting the war in Afghanistan. They included people calling for Israel’s destruction, by the way.) Such pusillanimity will garner us no respect in the Middle East, and only contempt for cowardice. It will bring more and bigger terrorist attacks, for their strategy will have worked, won’t it? Kill a few Americans and the country will run away like a sissy. Kill more and they will expect us to act even more cowardly. Kill lots and they will expect us to fold. Why not? We will already have done it before, if the Democrats run away from Iraq. That is the view the Democrats will confirm if a President Obama pulls out of Iraq. And if the leaders of the Democrats are even halfway as intelligent as they are reputed to be, they know it full well.

]]> By: Lefty http://www.yourish.com/2008/05/21/4842/comment-page-1#comment-32009 Lefty Thu, 22 May 2008 04:16:39 +0000 http://www.yourish.com/?p=4842#comment-32009 People don't get angry at Joe Lieberman because he's a hawkish Democrat, people call him a hack because he does things like running in a general election after losing the primary or writing an op-ed that effectively endorses an opposing party's candidate. There are better ways to try to bring his own party around to his personal views on Iraq and the War on Terror. But a deeper problem is that he doesn't seem to realize that it's not just his party's left wing that's opposed to staying in Iraq, it's a good chunk of the American public. People don’t get angry at Joe Lieberman because he’s a hawkish Democrat, people call him a hack because he does things like running in a general election after losing the primary or writing an op-ed that effectively endorses an opposing party’s candidate. There are better ways to try to bring his own party around to his personal views on Iraq and the War on Terror.

But a deeper problem is that he doesn’t seem to realize that it’s not just his party’s left wing that’s opposed to staying in Iraq, it’s a good chunk of the American public.

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