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Dems Embrace Microsoft Strategy
Nope. Not war. If you prevent enemy combatants from getting enough shuteye, make them sit in uncomfortable positions or mock their genitals, — you have crossed the line in the 21st century. No, war has gotten a conscience (unless, of course, you’re a “freedom fighter,” in which case strapping plastic explosives to yourself and walking into a school, market or mosque is fair). Actually, the answer is politics. “All is fair in love and politics.” Try it out. It may not sound right at first, but you’ll warm to it. You’ll have to, because this new maxim has more verity than the old one. Consider this synopsis and cast of characters: A congressional minority embittered by a presidential victory by the incumbent. A rapacious “special prosecutor.” An apparent white lie before a grand jury. An alleged big lie to the nation. A nation divided. Sen. Edward Kennedy, Rep. John Murtha, Sen. Joe Biden, Sen. Robert Byrd and the gang? Patrick Fitzgerald? Scooter Libby? WMDs? Red and blue states?

Actually, I was referring to Newt Gingrich, Ken Starr, Bill Clinton, lascivious cigar antics and conservatives versus liberals. The maxim that all’s fair in love and politics got its truth-value back in 1998 during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. And it’s proving true today. The parallels between these two scandals are deep. But there are some important differences, to be sure. While the Republicans win the honors for letting politics sink to an unprecedented level of ugliness throughout the Lewinsky affair, the Democrats have not only matched them but introduced tactics that actually threaten both national security and global stability. After all, the left is using accusations against the administration a) to claim that the U.S. really shouldn’t be in Iraq, and b) to justify withdrawing from Iraq prematurely.

Further, while the Republican-led Congress went on a witch hunt for Clinton in 1998, the witch hunt was grounded in a fact — that Bill Clinton lied about his salacious activities and did so in halls of justice. The Republicans, rather tastelessly, made a mountain out of a mole hill, but in the strictest sense were legitimate in doing so. The same cannot be said for the Democrats in this instance.

Democrats currently are making a mountain out of nothing, because George W. Bush never lied to anyone. If you ever thought differently, I suggest reading Norman Podhoretz’s piece in the December issue of Commentary. It’s like a time capsule from the lead up to the war. Not only does the article lay out in gory detail the kind of intelligence both Democrats and Republicans were privy to, but it exposes the greatest lie of all — the one many on the left seem willing to follow into a foreign-policy nightmare to score a couple of poll points against Dubya. Podhoretz says it best: “And so long as we are hunting for liars in this area, let me suggest that we begin with the Democrats now proclaiming that they were duped, and that we then broaden out to all those who in their desperation to delegitimize the larger policy being tested in Iraq — the policy of making the Middle East safe for America by making it safe for democracy — have consistently used distortion, misrepresentation and selective perception to vilify
as immoral a bold and noble enterprise and to brand as an ignominious defeat what is proving itself more and more every day to be a victory of American arms and a vindication of American ideals.”

It’s one thing to achieve a new low in dirty politics; it’s another to let dirty politics sully the Iraqis’ prospects for success and the mission of our troops, 2,000 of whom have sacrificed themselves to get us this far. Murtha, for example, may have once been a Marine, but it’s clear he’s now just a politician. His decorations can’t shield him from the criticism he’s gotten for allowing his mouth to get ahead of his brain and his partisanship to choke out his conscience. He should be ashamed. More importantly, he should meet with military commanders and the Joint Chiefs before uttering another syllable. In the latest twist to this sordid tale, the Democrats have turned to using the Microsoft strategy — “embrace and extend.” Last weekend, Biden, D-Del., announced his plan for withdrawing troops in a piecemeal fashion: “In 2006, they will begin to leave in large numbers. By the end of the year, we will have redeployed about 50,000. In 2007, a significant number of the remaining 100,000 will follow.” Isn’t this is curiously similar to the president’s strategy of “as Iraqis stand up, Americans will stand down”? The only difference is that it trades specific information to the enemy in exchange for political points. Whether the Dems back the Murtha or Biden plan remains to be seen — but both are predicated upon lies. But the worst part of this affair is that the Democrats’ lie isn’t a little white lie, a noble lie, or even a Machiavellian lie. It is the kind of lie that might get you a couple of extra congressional seats and allow you to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq. It’s the kind of lie that Lenin might have told — i.e. the one that, if told enough, becomes “true.” Mark Steyn sums up its likely consequences: “In war, there are usually only two exit strategies: victory or defeat. The latter’s easier. Just say, ‘whoa, we’re the world’s pre-eminent power but we can’t handle an unprecedented low level of casualties, so if you don’t mind we’d just as soon get off at the next stop’ 
 If you exit, they’ll follow. And Americans will die — in foreign embassies, barracks, warships, as they did through the ’90s, and eventually on the streets of U.S. cities, too.” Some may call words like this more Sept. 11 posturing by war hawks and Bush apologists. But suppose there is even a modicum of prescience in this position? Not only will a number of congressmen have blood on their hands, but so will the media. And I don’t just mean the blood of soldiers in voluntary service; I mean the kind found at Ground Zero.

Max Borders is managing editor of TechCentral-Station.com.
Posted by: Bobby 2005-12-05
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=136646