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During the Civil War, when the issues of right and wrong were clear, one of President Lincoln’s appointees, General George McClelland, betrayed him.  The anti-war Democrats to whom McClelland pandered were called “Copperheads.�  They rallied around McClelland to defeat the president politically, when they could not defeat the armies of America militarily.  McClelland had a pretty high opinion of himself.  He knew what Lincoln did not:  That the war come not be won, that giving up and bringing the troops home was the only sensible answer, and that the president was not much of a leader. Democrats overwhelmingly supported this...

There must have been times when Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker thought they were back in embattled Sadr City when they faced Democrats on Capitol Hill this week -- no Iraqi insurgents or al Sadr militiamen could have been more hostile. No wonder. The goals of the Democrats and both al Qaeda and al Sadr insurgents are the same: the defeat of the United States in the war in Iraq. There must have been times when Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker thought they were back in embattled Sadr City when they faced Democrats on Capitol Hill...

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and leaders of veterans groups held a stakeout this morning following President Bush’s speech on Iraq. Below are the Speaker’s opening remarks: “I want to join Leader Reid in welcoming our special guests today, our friends from the veterans’ community, Bobby Muller, whom we've all worked with over the years, whether it's eliminating land mines and speaking out for veterans. “Thank you, Bobby, for your leadership. Jon Soltz, who has been very courageous in his statements of shining the light on troops on what is happening in Iraq. We're...

Many in America want the Iraq war to end now and believe if we "leave Iraq to the Iraqis," the Islamic extremists will leave us alone. That position recklessly ignores how America's decade-long refusal to deal more decisively with Islamic terrorism led to 9/11 and all that followed, and how every time America flinches in the face of Islamic aggression, the terrorists see it as a weakness to be exploited. In this environment, Gen. David Petraeus must have expected he would be criticized for recommending the suspension of further U.S. troop withdrawals in the face of the recent flare-up of...

Data from the Defense Intelligence Agency indicates that enemy-initiated attacks on U.S. troops, Iraqi security forces and Iraqi civilians peaked in October 2006, the month leading up to the U.S. midterm elections. At the time, Vice President Dick Cheney said the insurgents were "very sensitive to the fact that we've got an election scheduled" and were trying to "break the will of the American people." Democrats, who cast the 2006 midterm election as a referendum on Iraq, ended up taking control of both the House and the Senate. The DIA data shows that between November 2006 and May 2007, attacks...

Every rebel newspaper in the South, every Tory newspaper in England, every Imperial newspaper in France, expresses a hope for the election of McCLELLAN. No Copperhead newspaper can deny this fact. Every new mail brings a new exhibition of it.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 29 (OneWorld) - U.S. war veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have announced they're planning to descend on Washington, DC this March to testify about war crimes they committed or personally witnessed in Iraq. "The war in Iraq is not covered to its potential because of how dangerous it is for reporters to cover it," said Liam Madden, a former Marine and member of the group Iraq Veterans Against the War. "That's left a lot of misconceptions in the minds of the American public about what the true nature of military occupation looks like." Iraq Veterans Against the...

Democrats in Washington just can't seem to help it. Even when great opportunities arise that would allow them to look like patriots, they sponsor yet another bill to cut off funds for our troops in Iraq. Last week, Democrats in the House of Representatives voted yet again to fix a firm deadline to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. It was their 40th such vote. Luckily, their motion died in the Senate, where the Party of Surrender failed to muster enough votes to survive a presidential veto. Also last week, House Democrats passed a measure, inappropriately titled the RESTORE Act...

House Democrats pushed through a $50 billion bill for the Iraq war Wednesday night that would require President Bush to start bringing troops home in coming weeks with a goal of ending combat by December 2008. The legislation, passed 218-203, was largely a symbolic jab at Bush, who already has begun reducing force levels but opposes a congressionally mandated timetable on the war. And while the measure was unlikely to pass in the Senate — let alone overcome a presidential veto — Democrats said they wanted voters to know they weren't giving up. "The fact is, we can no longer...

To believe that this corruption will simply evaporate when the Bush presidency is done is to underestimate the permanent erosion inflicted over the past six years. What was once shocking and unacceptable in America has now been internalized as the new normal. This is most apparent in the Republican presidential race, where most of the candidates seem to be running for dictator and make no apologies for it. They’re falling over each other to expand Gitmo, see who can promise the most torture and abridge the largest number of constitutional rights.

WASHINGTON -- Reflecting on Gen. David H. Petraeus' report and surrounding carnival, it's little wonder the natives are restless -- popping off in angry ads, firing personal invectives and, as regards Congress, surpassing even the low expectations of cynics. Bubbling up from the cellars, meanwhile, is the unwelcome thought that no one is in charge. The president is deferring to the general; the general is deferring to the president; Iraqis are deferring to no one; and everybody else is running for office. Such is the state of affairs six years after America was awakened by the armed sneer of radical...

Well, you'd get the Senate Majority leader trolling for a few RINO votes in order to pass something which he can at least try to sell as an anti-war measure: Saying the coming weeks will be "one of the last opportunities" to alter the course of the war, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said he is now willing to compromise with Republicans to find ways to limit troop deployments in Iraq. Reid acknowledged that his previous firm demand for a spring withdrawal deadline had become an obstacle for a small but growing number of Republicans who have...

Brookings scholars Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack used the most established of platforms, the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, to offer the most politically incorrect of arguments on Monday: “We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms.” Their 1,343-word piece, “A War We Just Might Win,” instantly provoked a more furious ideological shootout than has been sparked by any recent development on the battleground or action by the Bush administration. O'Hanlon told The Politico in an e-mail that he and his co-author were espousing "just temporary optimism," but their article was treated...

Public opinion, of course, can change. In 1973, 1974 and 1975, Congress undoubtedly felt it was reflecting the country's disillusionment with the Vietnam War, and it forced a disengagement over the Nixon administration's strong objection. Yet military historians are coming to a consensus that by the end of 1972, there was a much-improved balance of forces in Vietnam, reflected in the 1973 Paris agreement, and that Congress subsequently pulled the props out from under that balance of forces -- dooming Indochina to a bloodbath. This is now a widely accepted narrative of the endgame in Vietnam, and it has haunted...

Much has been written recently about the fact that Democrats, arguably with malicious intent, mercilessly attack Republican positions, programs, and political appointees without offering any positive alternatives of their own. This has been ascribed variously to their hatred of George W. Bush (which is certainly a factor), to the fact that a significant percentage of the Democrat base and their elected representatives are unrepentant '60s-style liberals (this, too, plays into the current scenario), even, as Michael Medved has put it, to "an internal contradiction deep within the liberal soul." The bottom line is that, no matter how we might characterize...

The Framing Wars By MATT BAI Published: July 17, 2005 After last November's defeat, Democrats were like aviation investigators sifting through twisted metal in a cornfield, struggling to posit theories about the disaster all around them. *snip* *snip* Democrats thought they knew the answer. Even before the election, a new political word had begun to take hold of the party, beginning on the West Coast and spreading like a virus all the way to the inner offices of the Capitol. That word was ''framing.'' Republicans, of course, were the ones who had always excelled at framing controversial issues, having invented...

Is the Democratic Party taking the “big tent” idea too far? It’s one thing to be the anti-war or pro-war party. It’s entirely another to be both. Yet that appears to be what the Democratic Party is trying to do. But don’t take my word for it. Sen. Joe Lieberman, the widely respected Connecticut senator who was the party’s vice presidential candidate in 2000, is squarely behind the war in Iraq. He supported the ouster of Saddam Hussein in the 1990s, when Congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act and many of his Senate colleagues voted for it because they knew...

On the 60th anniversary of VJ-Day in 2005, Marine Capt. Randy Stone, a military lawyer serving in Iraq, became a presidential poster boy. Capt. Stone's two grandfathers fought at Iwo Jima, so President Bush, in a celebratory speech, turned the whole family into a gold-braided rhetorical flourish to depict the continuity of American character and courage from one war to another. "Captain Stone proudly wears the uniform just as his grandfathers did at Iwo Jima," said Mr. Bush. "He's guided by the same convictions they carried into battle. He shares the same willingness to serve a cause greater than himself......

''Your President is lying to you.'' ''This war is illegal.'' ''You can't win the war.'' These phrases have been repeated over and over again by voices in the Democratic Party. Why in the world, during a time of war, would any American publicly say things so inflammatory and negative while troops are in harm’s way? Why would folks like Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, John Murtha, John Kerry, and Al Gore and friends continue this daily dose of Democratic attack on the president in his efforts to fight the war on terror? What is it that motivates members of...

Prominent political fundraisers who backed Al Gore's 2000 presidential campaign are reserving support for the current slate of 2008 Democrats in hopes the former vice president will swoop in for another White House bid. H.E. "Sonny" Cauthen Jr. told The Washington Times he has been flattered to get calls from candidates asking for his help this time around, but said he is hesitating on picking one while he waits to see what Mr. Gore decides. "If he wants to run, I would be very supportive of that," said Mr. Cauthen, a founding partner of the Washington lobbying firm Cauthen Forbes...

It has occurred to me recently that the Democrats have tried this "peace now" stuff before, during the Civil War. There really isn't much difference between what they said then and what they say now. I only point this out because we, as conservatives, have a beachhead to exploit in this. We need to point this out to as many people as we can, that if it were up to Democrats, there would be a Confederate States of America, and slavery probably would still be legal. For that matter, we need to get our local Republican parties to point this...

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said in the Senate Thursday she and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., will introduce legislation to end authority for the war in Iraq. The bill will propose Oct. 11, 2007, as the expiration date for the congressional resolution that authorized President George W. Bush to use force in Iraq. That resolution was approved Oct. 11, 2002. "The American people have called for change, the facts on the ground demand change, the Congress has passed legislation to require change," said Clinton, a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008. "If the...

The powerful Iraqi cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr called President George W. Bush the Antichrist on Saturday and urged him to heed calls by the opposition Democrats to withdraw from the chaos of Iraq. In fresh violence on Saturday, 14 people were killed and 39 others were wounded in a suicide car bombing in the holy Shi'ite city of Kerbala south of Baghdad, a hospital said. A Reuters witness said he saw tens of casualties. Sadr, whose ministers quit Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's government this month, renewed his demand for a U.S. pullout a day after Bush pledged...

Saw this photo and thought - and thought - Hey that sign looks familiar It's the Confederate Flag! Wonder if the Dem's realize it?

The district attorney of New York County, Robert Morgenthau, called the other day to say that he'd appreciated the editorial about the Copperheads. It wasn't just the substance of the editorial that had caught his eye, he said, but the historical tone, and he suggested we take a similar look at the battle of Okinawa. We perked up because Mr. Morgenthau is an old salt himself, having had a destroyer* torpedoed out from under him and sunk in the Mediterranean and then, in the Pacific, had another destroyer ** torpedoed, but not sunk, and later, when he was still on...

O.K. Freepers; I know most of you watched the 'Rats one and a half hour debate tonight. What do you think was the most stupid remark any of them made? I'll start it off. I thought Sen. Dodd's statement opposing drug testing for welfare recipients was utterly stupid. He said that drug addiction was an illness and a person should not have to give up their welfare because they are ill. Gag me with a book of food stamps!

As Democrats push to withdraw troops, they seek to undermine Republicans by creating repeated chances to side with an unpopular president. WASHINGTON — As congressional Democrats move to force President Bush to veto a war spending bill that would start a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, they are simultaneously pursuing a carefully crafted offensive aimed at another target: Republican lawmakers. In the charged debate over the war, the strategy aims to achieve Democratic objectives on both policy and political fronts, according to party leaders and aides. Convinced that Bush will never listen to their calls to bring troops home,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war. At the White House, the president immediately promised a veto. "It is amazing that legislation urgently needed to fund our troops took 80 days to make its way around the Capitol. But that's where we are," said deputy press secretary Dana Perino. The 51-46 vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage of the same bill a day earlier, fell far short...

CNN Baghdad correspondent Michael Ware and anchor Kyra Phillips joined Kiran Chetry on American Morning to discuss their recent trip to Iraq. Towards the end, Chetry wondered if America pulling out of Iraq would “help the situation.” Neither Ware nor Phillips appear to think anything of that idea, with Ware saying pulling out would hand “Iraq to Iran…and al Qaeda.” Will liberal bloggers who constantly swoon over Ware post about this? Transcript: KYRA PHILLIPS: It would be a disaster. I mean, I had a chance to sit down with the Minister of Defense, to General Petraeus, to Admiral Fallon, head...

BAGHDAD (AP) - An Iraqi government spokesman criticized the U.S. Senate vote to begin withdrawing U.S. troops by Oct. 1. "We see some negative signs in the decision because it sends wrong signals to some sides that might think of alternatives to the political process," Ali al-Dabbagh told The Associated Press. He spoke after the Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1. The House passed the same bill a day earlier, and President Bush has promised a veto. The legislation is the first binding challenge on the war that Democrats...

WASHINGTON - A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war. The 51-46 vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage of the same bill a day earlier, fell far short of the two-thirds margin needed to overturn the president's threatened veto. Neverthe less, the legislation is the first binding challenge on the war that Democrats have managed to send to Bush since they reclaimed control of both houses of Congress in January.

In light of todays Senate vote to undermine our Troops, who serve to keep us free,I thought I might post part of a response from a lengthly letter President Lincoln issued to "Erastus Corning & others" June 12,1863 in response to the "Peace Democrats" during the Civil War."In giving me the resolutions that earnest consideration which you request of me,I cannot overlook the fact that the meeting speak as "Democrats." Nor can I, with full respect for their known intelligence,and the fairly presumed deliberation with which they prepared their resolutions,be permitted to suppose that this occurred by accident,or in any...

FONT SIZE=4>IRAQ A TALE OF TWO POLLS ONE SAYS WE'RE DOING OKTHE OTHER SAYS WE'RE LOOSING BAD Once upon a time there were two polls Guess which one our MSM will pick ? by L.J.Keslin Will it be the poll that shows Iraqis are feeling that the "surge" is doing its job or will it be the one that shows the "surge" is failing ?    As Pierre de Paillasson an intern from Paris's communist paper Il Hunanitie advising the selection at a major MSM TV outlet observed in his best broken english" Ah but ov course eets de leettle poll one...

March 19, 2007, 6:00 a.m. Copperheads, Then and NowThe Democratic legacy of undermining war efforts. By Mackubin Thomas Owens While recovering from surgery recently, I had the good fortune to read a fine new book about political dissent in the North during the Civil War. The book, Copperheads: The Rise an Fall of Lincoln’s Opponents in the North, by journalist-turned-academic-historian Jennifer Weber, shines the spotlight on the “Peace Democrats,� who did everything they could to obstruct the Union war effort during the Rebellion. In so doing, she corrects a number of claims that have become part of the conventional...

Henry P. Wickham, Jr. will join Loud & Clear (Central Jersey 1450 AM WCTC) to discuss America's Neo-Copperheads this afternoon (March 10, 2007). Mr. Wickham: "There is a long history of comfort provided to the enemy by the 'peace' advocates in their very public undermining of the war effort. Copperheads consistently worked against what they saw as President Lincoln's war... There are some lessons about our Neo-Copperheads to be learned by examining these wars and their domestic opponents... Many of our American contemporaries are on the same moral plane as those Copperheads content to live with a fractured regime and...

I began this column last week with a quote attributed to Abraham Lincoln in which harsh treatment was deemed warranted for congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage morale and undermine the military. It turns out to have been a paraphrase of our 16th president's attitude toward those who engage in such behavior, rather than a direct quote. I regret the error and should, instead, have used the following, verbatim excerpt from a letter President Lincoln wrote in June 1863, as Robert E. Lee's army was on the march north to the fateful battle of Gettysburg. Mr. Lincoln...

Washington - Vying for support in an anti-war party, the Democratic presidential candidates are with each passing week embracing new and tougher measures to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq, adopting ideas they once shunned.In June, Barack Obama voted against a deadline for withdrawal, saying an "arbitrary" date could make things worse, "plunging Iraq into an even deeper and, perhaps, irreparable crisis." But a few weeks ago, the Illinois senator proposed a withdrawal date (March 2008), saying, "Too many lives have been lost, and too many billions have been spent." Hillary Rodham Clinton, a longtime critic of timetables, now says...

By Greg Reeson February 23, 2007 Despite voting to authorize the use of force against Iraq in 2002, Senator and would-be-President Hillary Clinton is now calling for a 90-day deadline to start the redeployment of American troops from what is erroneously called a Sunni -- Shiite civil war. Since Mrs. Clinton steadfastly refuses to apologize for her Iraq war vote, one has to wonder just what caused this sudden change of heart? The truth is that it's really quite simple. Democrats, particularly those trying to win the White House, are running out of time to effect a course change in...

CARACAS, Venezuela -- A U.S. congresswoman called on the Bush administration Wednesday to reconsider its ban on selling parts for U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to Venezuela, urging improved ties between the two nations. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, told reporters that she was making the first U.S. congressional visit to Venezuela since President Hugo Chavez's December re-election with the message: "I want an immediate repairing of the relations between the United States and Venezuela." Jackson Lee described Venezuela as a friendly nation that the U.S. should cooperate with and said that the F-16 jets, which are built...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has called for a 90-day deadline to start pulling American troops from Iraq. Clinton, the wife of former President Bill Clinton, has been criticized by some Democrats for supporting authorization of the war in 2002 and for not renouncing her vote as she seeks the U.S. presidency in next year's election. "Now it's time to say the redeployment should start in 90 days or the Congress will revoke authorization for this war," the New York senator said in a video on her campaign Web...

February 17, 2007 -- PROVIDING aid and comfort to the enemy in wartime is treason. It's not "just politics." It's treason. And signaling our enemies that Congress wants them to win isn't "supporting our troops." The "nonbinding resolution" telling the world that we intend to surrender to terrorism and abandon Iraq may be the most disgraceful congressional action since the Democratic Party united to defend slavery. The vote was a huge morale booster for al Qaeda, for Iraq's Sunni insurgents, and for the worst of the Shia militias.

In the face of unexpectedly bloody and costly engagements with enemy forces, the President encountered severe criticism from his Democrat opponents, who wanted "peace" more than they wanted victory. They mocked him as some kind of primitive creature, unable to straighten—out the mess he had created. The year was 1864. (SNIP) Of the many opponents to Lincoln's re—election, a group of northern Democrats known as the 'Peace Democrats' wished that the President would sue for peace. Gaining popularity in the Midwest among farmers, and with New York immigrants who feared for their jobs in the absence of slavery, the party...

February 15, 2007 De-legitimizing the Troops By Ray Robison The claim of the anti-war left that they "support the troops" is getting threadbare. The next phase of anti-war playbook: De-legitimize the soldiers. It is no coincidence that NBC reporter Richard Engle, who has long offered slanted reporting from Iraq to portray American actions in the worst possible way, and Bill Arkin of NBC and the Washington Post have made recent ‘gaffs' in their reporting. It should have been expected as part of the anti-war coalition information offensive. It is easy to recognize this progression when put into context. Whereas Colin...

Awaiting the Dishonor RollCongress "supports the troops" while emboldening the enemy. Thursday, February 15, 2007 12:01 a.m. Congress has rarely been distinguished by its moral courage. But even grading on a curve, we can only describe this week's House debate on a vote of no-confidence in the mission in Iraq as one of the most shameful moments in the institution's history. On present course, the Members will vote on Friday to approve a resolution that does nothing to remove American troops from harm's way in Iraq but that will do substantial damage to their morale and that of their Iraqi...

Top House Democrats, working in concert with anti-war groups, have decided against using congressional power to force a quick end to U.S. involvement in Iraq, and instead will pursue a slow-bleed strategy designed to gradually limit the administration's options. Led by Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., and supported by several well-funded anti-war groups, the coalition's goal is to limit or sharply reduce the number of U.S. troops available for the Iraq conflict, rather than to openly cut off funding for the war itself. The legislative strategy will be supplemented by a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign designed to pressure vulnerable GOP...

Divisive and Politicized Accounts of September 11th Attacks and National Security Issues Endanger Nation Washington, DC - Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY-28), Ranking Member of the House Rules Committee, today called for ABC to make clear to viewers that its upcoming television mini-series The Path to 9/11 is not a documentary account of the events and political decisions that preceded the terrorist attacks of that day. "ABC has a responsibility to make clear that this film is not a documentary, and does not represent an official account of the facts surrounding the September 11th attacks," Rep. Slaughter said. "Disclaimers noting...

ANTI-WAR activist Cindy Sheehan and Hollywood actress Susan Sarandon have urged Prime Minister John Howard to pull Australian troops out of Iraq. Mrs Sheehan, whose son was killed while serving with US troops in Iraq, will visit Australia next week (May 22) for a series of anti-war rallies. She said Mr Howard had been a fool to follow US President George W. Bush into war. "Absolutely," she said. "I think that George Bush is a fool and anybody who aligns with George Bush right now, especially with his administration crumbling from this corruption, I think they should distance themselves and...

The difficulties of sorting out the tremendous numbers of men who volunteered when the nation called, was matched only by the seeming impossibilities of locating sufficient equipment and arms. Ohio would eventually furnish a Grant, a Sherman, a Sheridan, a Rosecrans, and a host of other powerful leaders in a time of Civil war. Unfortunately, it would also excrete a Vallandigham. A Congressman from the Dayton district, Clement Vallandigham worked tirelessly and openly from the onset of the war for the defeat of the Union armies, the overthrow of the Lincoln administration, and the achievement of "peace without victory". He...

Yesterday,a "liberal" sort of got under my skin on another message board,so I sent him this bit of musical appreciation.(I don't think he liked it !) Let Me Express My Un-Admiration For You … I guess you know by now You’re not my hero; If this offends I truly do not care- On a scale of ten I’d rate you Minus Zero: You are the “wind” Beneath my chair.

Death to America - More Than Just a Slogan ! It has become quite fashionable-in leftist, copperhead,and pro-Islamic circles-to claim the United States has attacked Islamic countries without justification or reason. History,however, tells a very different story ! Before 9/11/01, there were at least 12 attacks by Islamists : all carried out on US soil. Daniel Pipes lists the following: July 1980: an Iranian dissident killed in the Washington, D.C. area. August 1983: a leader of the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam killed in Canton, Mich. August 1984: three Indians killed in a suburb of Tacoma, Wash. September 1986: a doctor...