posted on June 28, 2005 01:47:09 PM new
He Went Way to Easy on Them
Written by Justin Darr
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
After years of attacks from the Left on the War on Terror, Karl Rove has finally said it like it is. America’s Liberals have never approached the War on Terror with the seriousness it deserves. Oblivious to the obvious irony of Illinois Senator Dick Durbin’s coerced and disingenuous apology for comparing the actions of American troops at Guantanamo Bay to those of the Nazis coming within the same week as Rove’s comments, Democrats in Congress rushed to the aid of their ideological brethren attacking Rove and demanding either his resignation or a similarly disingenuous apology.
This is more than the usual game of Washington tit for tat politics. While Karl Rove was only intending to criticize Moveon.org and other radical Leftist groups, he hit far too close to the truth for the comfort of the Liberals on the Hill, who above all else do not want the American people to know what they really see as the significance of 9/11 in American history. This is why the Liberals rolled out their venerable and well used “outrage machine” in response to Rove’s comments.
If the voters knew what the real opinions of the Democrats are, the Democrats could look forward to being the minority party for the next 10 years. And for this Karl Rove should have criticized them. Rove was far too soft on the Liberals. He attacked a few fringe groups on the Left for recommending “therapy” rather than war as a response to 9/11 when he should have condemned the entire Democratic Party leadership and Liberal establishment not for just seeing 9/11 as a crime rather than act of war, but for attempting to manipulate the tragedy for policial gain and to advance their agenda at the expense of American lives.
Just as a quick reminder. Here are a few of the statements of prominent Liberals and Democrats that vividly demonstrate Rove’s point:
Democrat Congressman Dennis Kucinich, “Afghanistan may be an incubator of terrorism, but it doesn’t follow that we bomb Afghanistan.” (“Offer the Hand of Peace,” “Cleveland Plain Dealer,” 9/30/01.)
Former Democratic Presidential Candidate Al Sharpton, “America is beginning to reap what it has sewn.” (“The New York Times” 12/1/02)
Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kapur, “One could say that Osama bin Laden... [is] very similar to those kind of atypical revolutionaries that helped to cast off the British crown.” (The Associated Press, 3/6/03).
Democratic Senator Patty Murray, “[Bin Laden has been] out in these countries for decades, building schools, building roads... and the people are very grateful. We haven’t done that.” (World Net Daily, 5/17/05.)
Michael Moore, “[L]et’s examine our contribution to the unsafe world we live in.” (www.michaelmoore.com, 9/12/01.)
Democratic Senator Joseph Biden, the bombing campaign of Afganistan “reinforced existing stereotypes of the United States as a high tech bully.” (Associated Press, 10/23/01.)
Democratic Senator and Presidential Nominee John Kerry, “War on Terror is far less of a military operation and far more of an intelligence gathering, law enforcement operation.” (Associated Press, 3/19/03.)
The list can go on. But for a short cut you might want to read Beyond September 11. An Anthology of Dissent, edited by Phil Scranton, which highlights the writings of over 30 of the most prominent Liberal thinkers who in one voice state that not only is the United States wrong in protecting itself from terrorism, but responsible for the attack to begin with.
Then, after the Democratic leadership gives Michael Moore the seat of honor at the Democratic National Convention, they run around screaming, “How can you say we are soft on terror?” Despite their denials, the Democratic leadership has gone far beyond just comments aimed at undermining the war effort and our safety, they have backed their words with actions. Shortly after 9/11, nearly all Democrats supported military action in the War. This was not so much out of a sense of duty to their nation, but political survival. Opposing military action in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 would have been political suicide and the Democrats knew it. So they voted for the War and for the Patriot Act in the hopes the War on Terror would be fast and clean, leaving plenty of time for the voters to forget about it before the next election cycle as had happened after the first Gulf War.
Everything has not gone according to plan to for Left however. The War has not been as easy as their weak resolve can stomach. More importantly, the War has kept the attention of the voters on national security, the traditional strength of the Republicans, and away from the Democrats’ preferred domestic policy agenda. The Democrats are faced with the prospect of remaining the minority party unless something drastic, like the War going poorly, happens. So, immediately after the initial public sentiments about 9/11 died away, the Democrats initiated a policy designed if not to actually limit our ability to fight the War, at least to give the impression we cannot win.
Some of these policy decisions have been the opposition of the use of racial and religious profiling to identify security risks on airlines, demanding the closing of Gitmo and releasing illegal terrorist combatants, and calling for a definite deadline for the pull out of American troops from Iraq. None of these changes would serve to help the United States’ image abroad or improve our ability to fight the War, but they do serve the purpose of creating political scandal where there is none. They also serve to maintain a steady stream of negative news coverage for a liberal media so desperate to see Republicans out of power that they will consider as newsworthy retyped “official” memos where the originals have “mysteriously” disappeared.
This is what Karl Rove should have talked about: the systematic deception of the American people and undermining of the War by the Democratic Party for nothing more than a few seats in the House and Senate. The worst thing that can happen to the Democrats is for people like Dick Durban and Howard Dean to go out and actually articulate support of the Democrats through the ideas and actions of groups like Moveon.org. To the Liberals, gaining political power at the expense of another 9/11 and a few thousand more American civilian deaths is a price well worth paying.
About the Writer: Justin Darr is a freelance writer living in the Philadelphia area with his wife, Erin, and twin children. He can be read widely on the Internet and in print publications in the United States and Europe . Justin receives e-mail at [email protected].
