Last week, I made the case that liberals lacked the will and the spine to fight when necessary. Liberal opposition to that column was minuscule but very loud, which is in and of itself, stereotypically liberal. There is yet to be one cogent, coherent liberal argument why we should allow Iraq to fall under the control of al Qaeda, because a US withdrawal could mean just that.

All they can muster is some name-calling and emotional arguments that we are the aggressors who bombed the hell out of innocent Iraqis. Oh yeah, they also love the troops and want them to come home. That and some nutty conspiracy theories that the US wants Iraqi oil or permanent bases so the neo-conservatives can take over the world is all they’ve got. The reason why John Murtha’s treasonous strategy is a non-starter and the reason why liberals are now beginning to lose momentum on the debate over the war, is that they are –once again– appealing to emotion instead of reason and ignoring the real central issues of the Iraq debate. The truth and consequences.

It’s nice that they can march, employ ’60’s rhetoric and shout slogans to try and convince Congress to pass legislation resulting in the withdrawal of our forces; a prospect that is on shaky constitutional ground to begin with. But the truth of the matter is, liberals cannot or will not articulate what their positions are once US forces begin to draw down and actually leave. Members of Congress who put forth withdrawal proposals have an obligation to articulate the details before any such measures are even seriously considered. The gravity of the situation demands it. But they won’t, because this is a political game to majority Democrats. They’re hoping for that one ‘gotcha’ moment; an Iraq October 2008 surprise; and it’s pretty pathetic.

Have you heard one peep from any Democrat about what happens after we’re gone? They either haven’t thought that far in advance or don’t have a coherent plan to deal with that aspect of the problem. What are they going to say? Let Iraq deal with it? It’s their problem now? Is that the Democratic ideal of social justice?

Another liberal tactic is to try and point to the propping up of puppet dictatorships in the middle east in the wake of W.W.I as a big contributor of modern-day Muslim anger towards the west. Notwithstanding the fact that the British carved up the Middle East and not the US, they seem totally at ease with the prospect of allowing a democratically elected Iraqi government to be overthrown, not to mention that the Ottoman Empire actually worked side by side with the Germans during W.W.I.

If this whole mess is George Bush’s responsibility, how can liberals take that position and then tie his hands when he tries to do something about it? Whose responsibility will it be then? Do you think that the Muslim world will distinguish between George Bush or Nancy Pelosi when fixing blame for the descent of the Middle East into hell after we do leave? I have encountered many a liberal over the last few weeks making intellectually dishonest arguments on Iraq. Most of them are reacting instinctively and attacking, without realizing that I too have been fiercely critical of the way this war has been prosecuted.

You cannot blame George Bush for the Iraq mess, hamstring him at every turn while he tries to fix it and still maintain your own distance from the problem. Liberals, by default, are arguing that regardless of what they do, Iraq is Bush’s problem. That is simply not true. If we leave and Iraq descends into all-out anarchy and chaos and the Iraqi police and military are overrun, the Democratic party and their supporters will have been significant contributors to that hell despite what George Bush has done. That is how history will judge them.

No matter how often you point out the contradictions and the hypocrisy behind liberal orthodoxy and how it is completely at odds with common sense and reason, a true dyed-in-the-wool, bleeding-heart liberal will never get it. They’ll never understand the damage that their ideological stances can cause when they are in harmony with the goals of terrorists.

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