Posted on 09/11/2007 4:44:14 AM PDT by Kaslin
Has the left no remaining ounce of shame? Its latest target: the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus, whom Senate Democrats unanimously confirmed.
Remember Democrats faulting President Bush for being inflexible, not following the advice of the generals and having no strategy in Iraq -- never mind that they've never had so much as a paper-napkin sketch of a clue as to what to do in Iraq or the War on Terror? Yet, when he took decisive action that can fairly be said to have addressed all of these criticisms, they reflexively opposed him again, proving once more their allegiance to party over nation.
He replaced Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and appointed Petreaus to implement a new strategy in Iraq, which Democrats tacitly approved in confirming him. But even before the "surge" was fully in place, Democrats declared it a failure.
Now that the surge's military successes are so manifest that even some recalcitrant Democrats have been forced to admit them, they are doing everything they can to obscure those successes and to force a reversal in strategy that would completely erase them.
Some still deny our military gains. Others -- exemplars of legislative excellence that they are -- say the gains are irrelevant because of the lack of political progress by the Iraqi parliament. They are demonstrating an astonishing amount of inflexibility themselves, not permitting the facts to interfere with their bias toward failure nor their partisan interests.
In advance of Petraeus's anticipated report, Democrats not only second-guessed his expected analysis but outright contradicted him, marshaling any and every retired general in sight to impeach his upcoming report. Just once, couldn't they err on the side of victory instead of willfully rejecting positive reports from those closest to the action and in the best position to know?
Democrats didn't just disagree with Petraeus's conclusions, which they hadn't yet seen, but they attacked him personally, both directly and through their surrogates on the far antiwar left, like MoveOn.org, which placed a full page ad in The New York Times calling this genuine America hero and patriot "General Betray Us."
Does that not make your blood boil? How can decent people come anywhere near this infernal group after such a disgraceful attack?
Then again, MoveOn is not that extreme by today's Democratic standards, not to mention a formidable funding source. More than a handful of Democrats in Congress brutally slammed Petraeus in the week preceding his testimony. More piled on as the hearings began.
Sen. John Kerry called the Iraq mission "disastrous." Sen. Ted Kennedy accused the administration, through Petraeus, of "playing for delay." Sen. Chuck Schumer said the violence in Anbar had decreased in spite of the surge, not because of it, and that American troops had failed to protect the "tribes." Too despicable for comment.
Sen. John Edwards mocked Bush's "so-called global war on terror" and said America is less safe than it was before the 2001 terrorist attacks. We can only hope that someone makes Edwards eat the words "so-called global war on terror."
Sen. Joe Biden, who voted to authorize the Iraq War resolution and who earlier advised against setting a specific timetable for withdrawal of our forces from Iraq is now demanding withdrawal. I'm sure Biden's faltering presidential campaign had nothing to do with his reversals.
Contrary to the weight of the available evidence, Biden said the administration's policy and the surge are failures and that "there is no security in Baghdad or Anbar province." In a shameless allusion to Vietnam, Biden said he believed "absolutely, positively, unequivocally" that if we didn't change course in Iraq, "helicopters would be evacuating Americans from the Green Zone in Baghdad within two years."
But accusing Bush and Petraeus of ongoing incompetence wasn't enough. Sen. Richard Durbin accused Petraeus of "carefully manipulating the statistics" in favor of the surge. Sen. Harry Reid essentially called Petraeus a liar. Rep. Nancy Pelosi called Petraeus's report "the Bush report," and Sen. Dianne Feinstein likewise challenged Petraeus's "independence."
Rep. Tom Lantos insulted Petraeus as the hearings began, implying that Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker were just political shills for the administration ("they are delivering a report for the White House") who "were sent here this morning to restore credibility to a discredited policy." Lantos added, "No amount of charts or statistics will improve (the administration's) credibility." And: "The surge has failed."
In his impressive testimony, the general blew these slanderers out of the water. He denied that generals cited by Democrats disagreed with his recommendations, gave an optimistic but modest assessment of the surge, and emphatically asserted his independence and authorship of the report, which "has not been cleared nor shared by anyone in the Pentagon, the White House or the congress until it was just handed out." It was a sight to behold.
To answer my opening question: No, the left truly seems to have lost all shame.
they had shame??
Nope, none.
What did that hideous Wexler say? I heard Hugh Hewitt talk about him but I didn’t hear what he said. Anyone know?
Right after they unanimously confirmed Petraeus, they went to denouncing the surge - before the surge even began. Reminded me of the Democrats who voted for the AUMF in October 2002, then - when they didn’t win back the House and lost the Senate - started calling Iraq a quagmire, BEFORE WE EVEN WENT THERE.
Words don’t fail me, but the words I WANT to use, should.
!@#$%!!@@ democrats!
If the democrats are elected, that is exactly what will happen. And they will rejoice.
They have no shame, no honor and no patriotism. I am so furious as to the goings-on yesterday I can barely stand it.
Damn them all to hell. The sooner the better for the rest of us.
Shame? People have to have morals & a conscience to have shame.
When the Lefties lied about American Military during the Viet Nam war they lost any credibility they might have ever had.
Prediction: Fred Thompson will be the next POTUS.
I only hope & pray he has more balls and is more conservative than the present POTUS.
Semper Fi,
Kelly
“Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink.”
P.J.O’Rourke
This country is finished.
Every day since 9/11, they have revealed themselves as traitors.
More aligned and dedicated to their radical ideology than country.
Destroy them wherever you find them.
NOTHING is more important to the left than political power. If it takes losing a war to get that power, so be it. They will not let anything, even the well being of the country stand in their way.
We should be dusting off Gitmo cells for some of these “Benedict Arnold” democrats. They are an absolute disgrace to America.
We should be airing the video of the planes hitting the twin towers every hour on the hour today. Instead, Fox news said what we saw this morning would be the last and only time today they aired it.
BS! The left need to be reminded exactly why we are in Iraq. We didn't start that war.
sw
No only if we let them. That is why it is important to vote and not to sit home, like some have said they will. Just because they don’t like a candidate
They've always had shame. They just don't FEEL shame.
I have acquaintances who are democrats. It is amazing to me that these once seemingly-sane, seemingly -intelligent people can still align themselves with this party. They each, to a person, are living in denial of what their party has become. They still prefer to tell themselves that it is a party of the “working people” & that Republicans are the party of the rich. It is frightening that about half of the people in this country choose to be so blind about this.
I can look at the Republican party & find plenty to criticize - and I often do. In fact, if they get much worse, I will leave the party - just like I left the Episcopal church when they totally lost it to liberals. I’m not one to stay on a sinking ship.
That’s what I don’t like about these “moderate muslims”, who are nice when you talk to them one-on-one - but how can they stay in a religion that has allowed these fanatics to take them over?
Party loyalty - or loyalty to a religious denomination, is great - until that group totally loses it’s way. Then it is nobody’s fault but your own if you stay. This is how the Nazi’s took over in Germany - ‘good’ people said nothing & let it happen. I believe both parties in the US have some serious problems - the dems just have it worse, but if we don’t turn ourselves around - our party will sink to lower depths too. It is very sad.
Fantasy.
The libs know that patriotic, law-abiding Americans don't have the stomach to do what needs to be done to save our liberty. We have too much to lose.
In other words, they use our laws and freedoms against us in the same way that Islamonazi agents do to dig in to our country and damage it.
Maybe someday we won't have anything more to lose.
They’d have to have souls to feel shame, and they’ce shown time and time again over the last 40 years that they ain’t got no souls anymore.
Today’s democrat has more in common with the philosophy of Karl Marx than Ronald Reagan...unfortunately, most Americans today think Karl Marx is the brother with the cigar.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.