Sunday, November 18, 2007

Democratic Denial

Charles Krauthammer has an excellent piece on how the Democrats are denying our victory in Iraq and for what? Politics, of course. The Democrats also insist that the world hates us, but Krauthammer says not so fast:

(The President of France) "Nicolas Sarkozy’s trip last week to the United States was marked by a highly successful White House visit and a rousing speech to Congress in which he not only called America “the greatest nation in the world” (how many leaders of any country say that about another?) but pledged solidarity with the U.S. on Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon, the Middle East, and nuclear nonproliferation."

Then there is the pro-American leader of Germany, Angela Merkel. And what about the rest?

"British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who in an interview with Sky News on Sunday noted “the great change that is taking place,” namely “that France and Germany and the European Union are also moving more closely with America.”

As for our other traditional alliances, relations with Australia are very close, and Canada has shown remarkable steadfastness in taking disproportionate casualties in supporting the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Eastern European nations, traditionally friendly, are taking considerable risks on behalf of their U.S. alliance — for example, cooperating with us on missile defense in the face of enormous Russian pressure. And ties with Japan have never been stronger, with Tokyo increasingly undertaking military and quasi-military obligations that it had forsworn for the last half-century.

So much for the disarray of our alliances.

This really is excellent news for America. Not just Republicans. We have effectively defeated Al Qaeda in Iraq. This is tremendous news that isn't making it's way to the headlines of our biggest newspapers or news shows.

As NRO Rich puts it:

"The United States may be the only country in world history that reverse-propagandizes itself, magnifying its setbacks and ignoring its successes so that nothing can disturb what Sen. Joe Lieberman calls the 'narrative of defeat."

We should all be celebrating. The sooner we clean things up, the sooner our boys come home. The news out of Iraq tells us that troop deaths are down and violence is down. Where there was once Al Qaeda strongholds, we have safe neighborhoods. Christians and Muslims are worshiping to gether in Iraq. The world leaders are praising us.

But, there is this unfortunate timing of a Presidential election. And the Democrats placed all their bets on us losing in Iraq. Hillary has positioned herself to be able to claim she was with us along, and she will get away with it, because she plotted her entire Senate career on it. Which is why our victory will not hurt her.

But while the rest of us who understand what is happening, are feeling really good about it all, what must the Democrats be feeling with all the good news? First the enemy used their talking points against us, and now this.

I'd be in denial too.

h/t BigDog