The treachery of the American Left

These poor dolts are stuck between their own Scylla and Charybdis. On one hand, the American left finds it difficult as Americans to hope for failure in Iraq. No one who claims a shred of patriotism could ever sanely pray for U.S. defeat at the hands of a ragtag bunch of islamic extremists, whose stated goal is the annihilation of all things Western and all things American. Doing so is painful. It is so painful, they have already declared the counterinsurgency a failure:

"Now I believe myself that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada). "Johnson did not want a war loss on his watch, so he surged in Vietnam. After the surge was over, we added 34,000 to the 24,000 who died in Vietnam."

Notwithstanding the sheer idiocy of comparing Iraq to Vietnam, such statements spare their owners the pain of having to hope for defeat.

Why do they hope for defeat?

Because hoping for a successful outcome in Iraq is a political anathema to them. To do so is to pray for the political success of the much hated George W. Bush and much more hated Dick Cheney, whom they allege is the mastermind. If America succeeds in Iraq, Bush leaves office as the President who brought democracy to both Iraq and Afganistan, giving the middle east two bastions of freedom for the first time in history of the region. It results in two peaceful, stable and productive allies of the United States. For Iraq, it would place a large chunk of the world's proven oil reserves in the hands of a friendly nation and represent a regional influence with which to check the radical islamists in Iran. Those would be historically significant developments for the United States and southwestern Asia. And, they would provide a formidable legacy for Mr. Bush.

But such developments would also cause serious damage to the Democrats' hope to regain the White House in 2008 and add to slender majorities in the US House and Senate. That is the overarching goal of the left's opposition to the war in Iraq. If they can damage Bush politically, they will damage the Republican Party candidates who hope to succeed him. Their best opportunity to damage Bush is to declare defeat in Iraq, bring the troops home in a hot retreat, and lay the blame for the ensuing chaos on Bush. Make no mistake about it--if we were to pull out of Iraq at any time over the next 2 to 5 years, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis will perish and radical islamists will swoop in like vultures and live on the carcasses.

Would the left would willingly sacrifice those lives and risk giving Al Qaeda a failed state to move into? Would they risk the safety of our allies and our citizens just to win an election? It looks like it, doesn't it?