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National NewsConservative News
We Cannot Vote Ourselves Out of This War
By Gary Palmer
Posted on: November 10, 2006
“Worse than war, is the fear of war.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca
As a postmortem to the 2006 election, it might be good to start with that relevant quote from Seneca, a first century Roman philosopher and politician.
There is no denying that the elections were primarily about the war in Iraq. However, perhaps it was not the fear of war that led to the Democrats’ victory over the Republicans as much as the public’s dissatisfaction with the way the war is being waged. Other than the obvious message that voters across the country were fed up with the Republicans, it is hard to tell what message the voters were trying to send regarding the war in Iraq.
Right up to Election Day the polls indicated relatively strong support for the war on terror, but not necessarily the war in Iraq, at least as it was defined by the liberal media. Their launch of an all-out negative news campaign clearly undermined the public’s support of the war in Iraq and the Bush Administration’s strategy.
Nevertheless, the liberal media cannot take all the credit for the Republican losses. In many ways, the Bush Administration and the Republican Party brought this defeat on themselves by their stubborn refusal to address the massive public dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq. Frankly, one of the failures of the Bush Administration may have been their reluctance, or inability, to speak candidly to the American people about the full scope of this war.
Despite the overwhelming rejection of the Bush war strategy, putting the Democrats in control of Congress does not mean that this war will soon be over. In fact, things could get considerably worse. If fanatic Islamists worldwide now believe that their wave of bloody attacks last month influenced the outcome of our elections, they have every reason to believe that the bloodier they can make things in Iraq and Afghanistan, the harder the Democrats will be pressed by their anti-war liberal base to pursue a policy of cut and appease.
This might be tough because so many of the newly elected Democrats ran as conservatives and moderates who are apparently nowhere near as liberal as the Democrat leadership, much less the far left-wing that provides so much of their political money. This creates a dilemma for the Democrats because they know they cannot win the next election without keeping their left-wing anti-war base, which is determined to see the U.S. pull out of Iraq, in their big tent.
But the political reality is that, unless the remaining Republicans in Congress cave in, it is unlikely that the Democrats will be able to abandon Iraq. Instead, they could try to keep their new base intact by pursuing a small war strategy, more of a police action than a real war, and by launching a series of Congressional investigations into the Bush Administration and the Pentagon. Such strident and highly public hearings, including introducing articles of impeachment against Bush, would be very popular with the far left extremists and should keep them fired up until the 2008 elections.
But there will still be a war going on in 2008 and it will likely be the dominant issue in that year’s election too. Not a police action, not an isolated regional conflict, but a real war with profound consequences. Whether or not the Democrats grasp this, they cannot defend the nation against the rising tide of fanatic Islamism by fighting a small war or by police actions.
“An unpopular rule is never long maintained.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Thank God, we still live in a representative republic in which the people can impact the policies of our nation by the people we elect. The people can speak their minds at the polls every two years, and that is plenty of time for them to change their minds. As the Republicans have just learned, war can change minds and make those that once were popular, very unpopular. And not only will the Democrats be judged by how they handle the war, but also by how they handle the economy, taxes, and social issues.
Even though the election is over, we are still in a savage war being waged against America by radical Islamists. The fact that their primary tactic is terrorism does not diminish the reality that this is a world war, a fact that will not change no matter who controls Congress or who sits in the White House. Moreover, we will be at war with the radical Islamists whether we pull our soldiers out of Iraq or not, regardless of our presence in the Middle East, and regardless of our relationship with Israel.
Despite the results of the 2006 election, Americans must face the fact that we cannot vote ourselves out of this war. Eventually Americans will realize that, while the outcome of this election changed the political party in control of Congress, it did not change the plans of the current crop of radical Islamist leaders who declared war on America years ago. Consequently, the real issue is not whether we will fight, but whether we have the will to fight to win decisively.
The radical Islamists are fanatics who are committed to waging war against us until they destroy us. We cannot appease them and we cannot cower in fear, hoping in vain that we can. We have no choice but to fight them, and we can accept no result other than complete victory.
“If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living.” Lucius Annaeus Seneca
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