Glee may be premature, on both sides
Amir Taheri was the executive editor-in-chief of the largest newspaper in Iran during the 1970s. Ever since, he’s been writing about the Middle East and Iran for a wide variety of Western papers, as well as the Arab News and the pan-Arab daily Asharq Alawsat. You might say he’s well-versed in the region.
Taheri sees the Islamist totalitarian jihadis as jubilant after last week’s US election. In fact, as Taheri describes them, our enemies of that ilk from Baghdad to Tehran to Beirut–and everywhere in-between–are probably far more gleeful right now than even the Democrats in Congress. The former view the election as a sign of America’s weakness, and are convinced the fix is in for Iraq: it’s cut and run time. Showing those films of American helicopters on the roof in Saigon seems awfully prescient for Saddam, who even as he marches off to the gallows may get to shout a triumphant “I told you so!” to his former subjects.
Or maybe not.
Maybe one of the reasons the Democrats aren’t feeling so sanguine is that they realize, as Taheri says; it’s one of those “be careful what you wish for” things:
Some Democrats may have promised cut-and-run. But, once in power, the party as a whole may realize (to its horror) that, this time, those from whom Americans run away will come after them.
Leaving Iraq precipitously is by no means a foregone conclusion, even with the Democrats in power in Congress. The jihadis make an error if they automatically assume that it is. Although there’s no denying that Taheri is correct–this election sends a very bad message regarding American resolve–as he also points out, the Democrats might surprise the Arab world by countermanding that message.
Some Democrats may have promised cut-and-run. But, once in power, the party as a whole may realize (to its horror) that, this time, those from whom Americans run away will come after them.
May this travel from Taheri’s keyboard to the space between Democrats’ ears.
If I was Pelosi OR Teddy Kennedy OR Hillary, all the headlines from Iran and the Palestinians and Al-Queda yipping in glee that “we won, too!” would give me pause.
If you’re a Democrat, wouldn’t the bottom line be absolutely and positively to do the OPPOSITE of what some derangoid in the Middle East thinks you should do?
And if someone who believes in female genital mutilation, “death to the infidels”, and that America deserved 9/11 because of the Palestinians — all of the things the Islamists believe in — if that person agrees with you, shouldn’t that make the hairs on your neck stand up, and at least one or two of the cogs in your brain start to backtrack?
If you’re a Democrat, wouldn’t the bottom line be absolutely and positively to do the OPPOSITE of what some derangoid in the Middle East thinks you should do?
Dems do what should be done, and don’t allow foreign policy to be dictated by al-Q. That’s the difference between Reps and Dems.
And you’re really pretty naive if you think terrorists are all honest injuns. Jesus.
JPE, the terroists lie. The Democrats tell the truth. And yet they say the exact same thing. Did you somehow sleep through, via a coma, Logic 101?
If you’re a Democrat, wouldn’t the bottom line be absolutely and positively to do the OPPOSITE of what some derangoid in the Middle East thinks you should do?
I wouldn’t recommend doing the exact opposite, because then the terroists would say what they don’t want you to do, and you react with predictability. The thing is, a loyal opposition cannot and should not parrot propaganda from terroists, designed to demoralize Americans and to kill more Americans. Here is an example of honest dissent, the real loyal opposition that the two party system is supposed to have but the Left betrayed for pure power.
Link
The American people have said forcefully that they are impatient with Iraqi leaders who will not make the political compromises required to blunt the sectarian violence and unite the Iraqi people. They are impatient with Iraqi government leaders who have not disbanded the militias and death squads that are a plague on Iraqi society. And they have lost patience with the Iraqi leaders who won’t condemn Sunni-Shia enmity, tribal rivalries, and ethnic hatred.
America has given the Iraqi people the opportunity to build a new nation at the cost of nearly 3,000 American lives and over twenty thousand wounded. But the American people do not want our valiant troops to get caught in a crossfire between Iraqis if they insist on squandering that opportunity through civil war and sectarian strife.
Read the link, if you want to see an example of how things should be, rather than how the Democrats have made a hash of American politics.
Here’s another tidbit of logic that befuddles jpe.
If the terroists are lieing concerning what they said about America. Then this means the terroists themselves don’t really believe America is weak, right? So when the Democrats say that they believe America should cut and run, does this mean Democrats are acting on their beliefs by making America weaker?
The Democrats say we should pull out, the terroists say we should pull out. Are the Left saying the terroists are lieing and the Democrats telling the truth? Maybe the Left should get their head checked for psychotic episodes.
Oh wait, I get it. They come here to neo-neocon because they want some head checks. Gotcha.
Democrats just want to save the world from Bush, Cheney, and Haliburton. If running from Iraq helps crush the republican war machine, they’ll sprint like sprites. Pelosi is really a political genius, you just haven’t been able to penetrate her method yet. Murtha becomes a martyr to Rove’s evil machinations. He comes back ten times stronger than before. Hehehe.
The Dems might surprise the Arab world (and us)? That reeks of the triumph of hope over reality.
The Dem ascendancy is the painful and inevitable result of W squandering his “political capital” of 2004. We as a nation and as a civilization have crept up to, and now enter, a very long period of darkness.