The Posse finds itself in rare disagreement with the Belmont Club on what the Democrat’s war strategy is. Perhaps it isn't true disagreement, but rather a point of difference.
Wretchard makes a strong case that the Democrats don’t actually have a strategy other than to object loudly to anything and everything President Bush does. But he doesn't go far enough.
Before going further, we must first note that their strategy is based on two seemingly contradictory beliefs: that Al Qaeda is both invincible and that also that it doesn’t exist.
We are told that the enemy is implacable and all-powerful. Far from being dismayed at the horrific losses Al Qaeda has taken in Iraq, they are in fact encouraged.
For most movements, losing 10 to 20 warriors for each enemy soldier killed would shatter morale and cause widespread disaffection and even desertion. But for militant Islam, that’s merely evidence of its profound long-term success.
Why each jihadi we kill generates 10 more! Each victory on the battlefield we achieve merely makes the enemy more eager to run forward and die for the glorious cause!
At the same time, we are told (often in the same paragraph) that the Al Qaeda is essentially illusory. The real threat is BusHitler’s Oil/War Machine that is using a phantom Bin Laden to seize total power.
Top secret programs that listen in on Al Qaeda phone calls and monitor their financial transactions have zero strategic benefit because the enemy is so weak. Instead of helping to undercut a deadly enemy, these programs are instead merely cleverly disguised anti-democratic inroads designed to establish a permanent right-wing regime.
Based on the remarks of its leadership, the Democrats do have a clear policy preference: Immediate American retreat from Iraq (perhaps to Okinawa) and the destruction of the US intelligence and security apparatus – particularly the detainee camp at Gitmo. Presumably the prisoners there would be handed over to Belgium or some other suitably neutral party.
This is their plan. It is a horrible plan, a plan with no electoral mandate outside of the Providence cyber cafes, and the MoveOn fever swamps, but it is a plan nonetheless.
While Wretchard points to the lopsided margins by which the detainee interrogation bill passed, it is worth recalling that clear majorities of Democrats voted against it.
The Democrats have a plan and they are sticking with it. It is called defeat.
What is more, this defeatism is gaining ground. The Iraq war was authorized by all but a handful of Dems. Now a clear majority cannot even agree that terrorists caught in acts of war against the United States should be interrogated rather than treated as jaywalkers or shoplifters.
There is no double-bind here. The Dems are shifting rapidly to the far left.
Far left democrats have a policy, and it is called chaos. Like children, the left wing thrives in an environ of chaos. In a chaotic world, no one is accountable or responsible for anything. There are no adults, no rules, no right, no wrong. Just individuals, doing whatever they can in the perfect State of Nature.
I suspect that the left-wingers believe that they would be the leading elite of such a world and would be free to wield power and wealth much like Soviet elites did during their rule.
Clinton was a perfect example of this elitist worldview. Being free to use other's mouths for his pleasure while ordering bombing strikes then redefining acts and words to suit his whim. Ultimately Clinton could never be shamed in his perfect State of Nature because he was accountable to no-one, including even God.
Thomas Hobbes would not be impressed with the Left, but he would understand them perfectly.
Posted by: lugh lampfhota | September 29, 2006 at 09:12 PM