Trying to Create a Quagmire

Thank God that Franklin Delano Roosevelt did not have to contend with the modern incarnation of his own party. We’d still be fighting World War II – assuming that is that Jack Murtha and John Kerry had not managed to force a humiliating surrender upon us. That the Democrats are the party of defeatism is indisputable. That this creates an image problem for the Democrats that will haunt them on election day is equally indisputable. And so the Democrats have chosen a couple of occasions to pound their hairless chests and squeak out totally inappropriate and ill-timed primal calls of hawkish belligerence that are certain to lengthen a war they claim they want ended.
The most recent example of unwelcome stupidity was the Senate Democrats’ resolution last week demanding that the Iraqi government withdraw any offers of “amnesty” to insurgents with whom it is negotiating for an end to the violence.
Following is the text of their ironically mislabeled “sense of the Senate” resolution: “(1) The Iraqi government should not grant amnesty to persons who have attacked, killed, or wounded members of the U.S. Armed Forces serving heroically in Iraq to provide all Iraqis a better future. (2) President Bush should immediately notify the government of Iraq that the United States government opposes granting amnesty in the strongest possible terms.”
This is more like the nonsense of the Senate.
Imagine how difficult it would have been to bring World War II to a conclusion if German and Japanese soldiers were promised individual retribution for serving their country. What reason would they have to lay down their arms? If they were going to be punished for fighting on the losing side, they might as well have gone down fighting or until they ran out of ammunition. The same is true here. Roosevelt and Churchill demanded unconditional surrender from the Nazi and Imperial Japanese governments, but treated the soldiers with a humanity that the Democrats refuse to extend to Iraqis.
Although I have supported this war from the beginning and will continue to support it, we surely cannot exact revenge upon those who defended their own country on their home soil. Certainly we cannot extend mercy to those who committed such unforgivable war crimes as the torture and mutilation of our soldiers that occurred this past week any more than we could forgive Hitler’s most vile minions. But to forbid amnesty to soldiers who fought for their own country’s sovereignty would be to forestall forever the reconciliation that would be a precondition to a peaceful and united Iraq. Contrary to what the Democrats claim, we are not now in a Vietnamesque quagmire. We will be though if we don’t permit our adversaries a way to end their fight. The Democrats are demanding that the Iraqis and our servicemen keep taking swings at the tar baby indefinitely. How many American servicemen and Iraqis will die to satisfy the Democrats’ “sense of the Senate?”
The Democrat’s resolution is also contrary to the standard conventions of war. To this day, Stalin’s Soviet Union is still reviled for marching defeated German soldiers off to Siberian gulags after the war. The Democrats would have us emulate Stalin – although quite frankly, not for the first time.
This charade is all about trying to put flesh on the Democrats’ skeletal mantra that they support the troops but not the war. But in truth, by forcing the enemy into a position where he has nothing to lose by continuing the fight, the Democrats ensure that more servicemen will die.
It’s appropriate that the Democrats’ point man on this squalid business is New York’s Charles Schumer. It was Charles Schumer who pandered to racial antagonism to oppose the Dubai ports deal. The Democrats followed. He started that campaign by calling the vile Michael Savage talk radio show. Michael Savage achieved his notoriety on-air by denouncing a homosexual as a “pervert” and wishing aloud that he would contract AIDS and die. But, when it serves Schumer and the Democrats’ ends, they will snuggle up to even the execrable Michael Savage. It was Charles Schumer’s office that illegally stole Maryland Senate candidate Michael Steele’s identity to gain access to his credit report. Schumer portrays himself as a champion of identity theft victims. If the Democrats intend to pursue this path of cynicism, they could not have chosen a better spokesman.