The Dark Side of Democracy

The single greatest issue of our time is our national security as it is threatened, from within and without our borders, by a diffuse and amorphous radical Islam. No honest person could claim that the war in Iraq is unrelated to that threat today, irregardless of where they may have stood on the war at the outset or what they believed to the contrary in 2003. If you think that a broad brush overstatement, please do an internet search for the statements of al Qaeda's al-Zawahiri over the past two years and re-read them. In that light, what to do about Iraq deserves, more then any single issue this day, to be addressed directly.

But the far left of the Democratic Party, led in the House by Nancy Pelosi and Jack Murtha, know that they cannot convince a majority of our elected representatives to abandon Iraq in light of our national security interests. Very few Democrats, while they might want to abandon Iraq, some for reasons of true belief, many with dreams of partisan political gain, are willing to accept the responsibility for what might transpire in the aftermath of such a retreat - and not just transpire in Iraq, or even throughout the entire Middle East. A failure of resolve to complete what we have started in Iraq would have implications for the totality of our national security and, beyond our own borders, for the security of Europe, who are already facing enormous problems with the influx of Wahhabi Islamists into their countries.

But it is the far left liberal wing of the Democratic Party that forms the leadership in Congress - and they wish to see us out of Iraq at any cost. Thus we have this abortion of a Supplemental Appropriations Bill crafted by Pelosi and Murtha, likely unconstitutional in many respects, to tie the President's hands in his ability to deploy troops to Iraq, and to set a timetable for withdrawal before the next Presidential election. It is clear that such a plan simply cannot pass on its own, even with a Democratic majority in both the Senate and the House. Thus, Pelosi and Murtha are attempting to buy the votes by attaching 21 billion dollars in pork barrel projects. That they have done that is both the height of cynicism and, as the White House has accurately described it, "unconscionable." That it might work - as reported this day in the Washington Post - is the dark side of Democracy.

As always, do let your voice be heard.

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Update: Peter Wehner, the deputy assistant to the President and director of the White House's Office of Strategic Initiatives, has authored an article that expounds upon all of the same points made in this post and more. It is an excellent read.