DFL: Snatching Defeat From The Jaws Of Victory

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Ben Johnson has a great article in Front Page on the Iraq vote and what it means to the ultimate victory against terrorism. It is also illustrative of how far Iraq has come in a very short time.

[[ Otherwise, by all media accounts, American troops were nearly “invisible,” leaving the job of securing the election in the capable hands of Iraq’s 200,0000 indigenous police and footsoldiers – a force the New York Times admits is daily growing in numbers and aptitude. In some areas, Sunnis protected polls from jihadist violence.

The strategic importance of this ratification has not been lost on world leaders. Condoleeza Rice pointedly told “Meet the Press” yesterday, “You defeat an insurgency politically as well as militarily. It will take time, [but] an insurgency cannot ultimately survive without a political base.” President Bush stated on Saturday: “Today's vote deals a severe blow to the ambitions of the terrorists. A clear message to the world that the people of Iraq will decide the future of their country through peaceful elections, not violent insurgency.” Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari called this constitution “a sign of civilization” and “a new birth.” ]]

Did you get that? Sunnis were protecting polls! It is very difficult to overstate the importance of that one.

Still, the jihadis can always go to their bench and get relief help from their staunch allies here in America.

[[ Yet this vote has not deprived al-Qaeda of its ultimatehope: that peaceniks will eventually cause Uncle Sam to withdraw from Iraq, just as GIs “ran and left their agents” in Vietnam on orders from a Democratic Congress. However, an engaged, democratic, and self-sufficient Iraq would deprive Zawahiri of the base-of-operations of which he fantasizes.

The left-wing blog the Daily Kos also hinted there may be substance behind Sunni charges of U.S. corruption in a post that concludes, “It matters what the Sunni think.” [sic.]
 
Other leftists share the Sunnis’ and terrorists’ disappointment. “This thing is an enormous fiasco,” said Juan Cole, who believe Sunni opposition “really undermines [the constitution’s] legitimacy, and this result guarantees the guerrilla war will go on.” Cole, a Middle East Studies “scholar” at the University of Michigan, believes President Bush launched Operation Iraqi Freedom to give Ariel Sharon cover to steal more Arab land.
 
On the eve of the vote, Ted Kennedy lambasted President Bush for not spelling out an exit plan, claiming Bush “pushed victory further from our reach.” John Kerry likewise blamed him for creating “a terrorist mess in Iraq that didn't exist before the invasion.” Writing for Z magazine, far-leftist Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies described the new constitution as a “text largely crafted and imposed by U.S. occupation authorities and their Iraqi dependents, and thus lacking in legal or political legitimacy.” This recalls Kerry’s words that the January vote possessed only “a kind of legitimacy.”

Thanks to the Bush administration, Iraq is establishing itself as a bulwark of democratic freedom, step-by-faltering-step. This move would insulate that nation against terrorism – which is precisely why the terrorists are fighting so hard: they recognize they are losing. A decisive loss in Iraq could, at a minimum, force al-Qaeda to change tactics; it may prove the decisive battle that dries up its appeal as a tool of terrorism (until its successor emerges). Apart from these considerations, Iraq’s chrysalis, from authoritarian fascist state to autonomous republic, should be applauded by every friend of freedom on its own merits. In the face of the most stunning political metamorphosis since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the politically motivated Left can only rage against a president it hates by lashing out at a people he has freed. ]]

Yes... our left wing brothers are very special, aren't they?

Sticking It To The Terrorists

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