Watching MSNBC "reporting" on Woodward's book this morning. The anchorwoman was describing Powell's speech at the UN as the Administration's case for going to war. In fact, the Administration's case for going to war is contained in the 2002 White Paper, the congressional authorization for the use of force (November 2002), in the State of the Union message of January 20, 2003 and in its statement calling for the enforcement of UN Resolution 1441, a war ultimatum whose deadline passed on December 7, 2002. Powell's speech was in February 2003.
Powell's speech was not America's rationale for going to war with Iraq. Powel''s speech had one purpose -- to persuade Russia and China and France to enforce UN Resolution 1441. We now know why this was futile. Russia, China and France were Saddam's allies and stood to lose billions of dollars each if he was toppled by a US-led UN force. The malicious Democratic Party campaign against Rumsfeld, the President and the War -- which is abetted by the anti-war left in the press -- is reaching a fever pitch. Two books a day it seems (as the Post's Karen DeYoung joins Woodward with another political illiterate screed against the Administration). The fact is that the left's solution to present difficulties in Iraq is to deliver Iraq to Iran. The Democrats' anti-war arguments are as sickening as they are absurd: We create the terrorists. If only America would stop its aggressions, the problem of the Islamic jihad would diminish accordingly.
Absurdity two: if only America left Iraq and focused on killing Osama bin Laden, the Islamic jihad would be over. Bin Laden's death was recently reported. Did anybody stop to think what this would mean if it were true? It would mean nothing. Did the killing of Zarqawi end the war in Iraq? Bin Laden has been ineffectual for nearly three years. The war we are in is not a war with a gang, which will be demoralized by the loss of its leader. Dead leaders make martyrs -- precisely what our enemies aspire to. By the left's logic we should stop killing them, because that only encourages them.
Our enemies are engaged in a religious crusade It is a war with a religious crusade. Winning the war is going to require a long hard struggle. The weak and cowardly are going to counsel appeasement and retreat all along the way. Those who attack us from within without offering a constructive policy for winning are helping the enemy. They are not criticizing the Administration; they are sabotaging the war. I have yet to come across a single Democrat who has a plan to prosecute the war more effectively. That tells me more than I care to know about the integrity of the opposition.
Bottom line: This war will be won or lost on the battlefront at home -- and right now the Democratic Party is a big part of the problem.
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