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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

MSNBC: Baiting the flytrap with the sickly sweet stink of defeatism

On Meet the Press this Sunday, Judy Woodruff was vibrant with optimism that America might yet be convinced to concede defeat in Iraq, and she did have some remarkable evidence on her side.

Tim Russert had just read the latest NBC-Wall Street Journal poll numbers for President Bush: "Only 37 percent approve of the way he's handling Iraq, fifty-eight disapprove." The implication would seem to be that 58% of Americans actually think the war is going badly for us.

These numbers are quite astounding, given that the terrorists are thoroughly beaten in Iraq, having no chance whatsoever of stopping Iraq from becoming a democratic state that is fully competent on its own to track down and annihilate every last foreign fighter. The real mystery is why the terrorists are continuing to fight in Iraq at all. By attacking the Iraqi people they are making every segment of Iraqi society, even the Sunni minority, hate them with a white hot passion. They are winning for the United States the one battle we could not otherwise win by force of arms: the battle for the direction that the Iraqi and Afghan democracies will take. We cannot force the electorates of these countries to favor religious liberty, yet the terrorists are doing more than we could ever hope to give intolerance a very very bad name. This is how Al Qaeda chooses to spend its limited pool of Jihadists? They are dying by the tens and hundreds to serve OUR purposes in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Judy’s optimism offers an explanation. She is a little frustrated because Katrina is hampering the ability of her and her colleagues to attack the war effort, but it doesn't keep down her pluck:
...we were just sitting here saying, if it hadn't been for Katrina, the numbers on--the deaths in Iraq would have been all in the headlines the last week.
Katrina won’t stop her and her colleagues for long. Neither will the passage of an Iraqi constitution present much of an obstacle:
Yes, they're about to vote on this constitution, but with the continuing violence, it just seem--when we in the United States open our newspapers every morning and we see these numbers, and they are going to--they are going to take a larger place in the news whole, if you will.
If only Judy and her friends can succeed in losing the war at home, then the Jihadists won’t have to win the battle for hearts and minds in Iraq. They can take the country by force. And is it really such a crazy hope? Look at those poll numbers! 58% of Americans think America is losing???? Against all odds, Judy and friends would seem to be winning! Maybe they can actually snatch defeat from the jaws of victory!

This would seem to be the hope that the terrorists are staking everything on, which leaves me cheering: “Go Judy go!” She is the sickly sweet smell of defeatism that is luring al Qaeda to destroy itself utterly in Iraq. All they can do is die, and make themselves hated at the same time. She and the rest of the Democrat dominated media are the stink in the fly-trap.

Listen to co-panelist Gwen Ifill, who shares Judy’s undaunted optimism for looming defeat:
What about Iraq? ...there's nothing good to be pointed to there. Two hundred people killed in this latest wave of anti--of insurgency; 600 people wounded; 30 more overnight in Baghdad. There isn't a whole lot of good headlines out of this. And that's not even talking about the political situation, which- -everybody has said this is really a political solution which has to happen in Iraq, and that hasn't sorted itself out.
You tell ‘em Gwen! Don’t worry, you terrorists, that making yourselves universally hated in Iraq is doing anything to sort out the political situation there. Just keep putting up body counts that Gwen and Judy and friends can plaster on America’s front pages. You might still win! Just give 'em some of that good old fashioned "continuing violence." It doesn’t matter if the nature of that violence is to grind you into powder both militarily and politically. Put your faith in the American left!

Then there are the boys. Here’s co-panelist Eugene Robinson’s contribution:
You know, I'm not nearly as optimistic about good things happening in Iraq. I don't see how even, you know, the electoral process in Iraq really advances the cause of a unified Democratic Iraq in the real world. You've got the Shia/Sunni/Kurd split in Iraq, and that's just going to persist. And to my eye, it's going to get worse, which means worse headlines for the--for the White House. And I think you will see some peeling off. I mean, you know, if you look at the Sunni insurgent strategy, it's working pretty well. They're trying to foment what looks like a civil war, make the country ungovernable. And at the moment they're doing very well at it.
Hear that al Qaeda? Your strategy is working pretty well. "Very well" even! Just hang in there. It won’t be long now. Pretty soon you’ll all be dead, and your memory will be forever cursed in the new heart of the Muslim world.

Not that I would be for creating Judy and Gwen and Eugene if they didn’t exist. One would have to have deep reservations about choosing to pursue a flytrap strategy, with all the Jihadist murders of innnocent Iraqis that are involved. But this isn’t a chosen strategy. It’s just the way things are working out. The Democrat party and our Democrat dominated news media have decided that, for their own political reasons, they want to try to reprise their great historical victory: the loss of the Vietnam war. They even nominated as their presidential candidate the foremost icon of that victory, and cheered him on when he tried to convince the nation that we are losing in Iraq: "With all due respect to the president," bellowed Kerry to the crowd, "has he turned on the evening news lately? Does he read the newspapers? Does he really know what's happening? Is he talking about the same war that the rest of us are talking about?"

This very bad behavior by the Democrats may well be inducing the Jihadists to play into our hands in Iraq. So be it. The desert is a good place to turn lemons into lemonade. But boy are those 58% of Americans going be confused when the Jihadists decide to cut their losses. "But I thought we were losing? You mean we won? How did that happen? The newspapers said... Wha?... I'd better go back to sleep."

Go back to sleep America. Your gullibility may actually be helping us to win, giving the Jihadists reason to put their stock in Judy and Gwen. Just make sure to wake up in time for the next election please.

Where was Byron York during this orgy of defeatism? Keeping his head way way down. Hey, when these defeatists are feeling their oats, you could lose your reputation for moderation in a hurry. "What? You think we're winning? Are you insane? Have you turned on the evening news lately? Do you read the newspapers? Are you talking about the same war that the rest of us are talking about??"

Personally, I think Byron was just doing his part to support the fly-trap strategy.

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