Dems Desperate To Surrender Before We Can Win

August 13, 2007

By Doug Patton

It is hard to comprehend the fact that there are people in the United States Congress who are so addicted to power they actually want America to lose the war in Iraq in order to obtain it. Yet that is exactly what is happening with Democrats running the show. They couch their cowardice in high-minded lies about supporting the troops but not the mission, but the truth is much less complicated. They cannot stand the idea that "George Bush's war," as Hillary Clinton likes to call it, might actually succeed.

As former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich said on Fox News Sunday, "The left wing of the Democratic Party is deeply opposed to American victory and deeply committed to American defeat."

Gingrich's statements of late have been bold, blunt and controversial, much as one might expect from someone looking for an opportunity to jump into the Republican race for president. This interview was no exception. He compared the Democrats' betrayal of our allies in Iraq to their abandonment of the South Vietnamese.

"In 1975, when there were no Americans left in Vietnam," Gingrich said, "the left wing of the Democratic Party killed the government of South Vietnam, cut off all of its ammunition, and sent a signal to the world that the United States had abandoned its allies. What I would say to any Democrat who wants America to leave is quite simple. Millions of Iraqis have sided with the United States. They are known in their neighborhoods. They are known in their cities. If we abandon them, they are going to be massacred."

And so are we, if we surrender.

Appeasement is not a virtue among our Islamist enemies. It is a sign of weakness. The stupidity of thinking that defeat is the solution to our dilemma in Iraq is, at best, ill-advised, and at worst, irrational. It is a signal to our enemies around the world that, a mere generation after our embarrassing retreat from Southeast Asia, we are still unable or unwilling to keep our commitments to our friends. Is there a clear-thinking American who can't see that this is an engraved invitation to the Islamist fanatics of the world to prey upon our obvious weaknesses?

General David Petraeus has been assigned the unenviable task of making the troop surge work in Iraq, and early indications are that he is beginning to have some success. Violence against American troops is down in Baghdad. As Gingrich points out, millions of Iraqis have put themselves on the line to support our efforts. With our help, they might just win this war and have a democratic society of their own.

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., one of the left's most reliable appeasers, appeared on the same program as Gingrich. Feingold told interviewer Chris Wallace, "I do not buy the notion that the surge is working. I do not buy the notion that somehow Petraeus is going to be able to tell us that things are moving in the right direction. And in fact, he'll come back in September and he's going to say, 'Let's wait until the end of the year.'"

Feingold and most other Democrats are so bent on losing before we can win, they don't even want to wait for Petraeus' report in September. They are desperate to surrender.

Gingrich put it best: "We are faced with evil opponents. Those opponents need to be defeated. And if General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker come back in September and say, 'We actually can win this thing,' I want to understand the rationale that says, 'No, we don't want to let America win. Let's legislate defeat for the United States.'"

That is the real agenda of the Democrats - surrender before we can win.

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Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and public policy advisor. His weekly columns are published in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including Human Events Online, TheConservativeVoice.com and GOPUSA.com, where he is a senior writer and state editor. Readers may e-mail him at dougpatton@cox.net.