How to Lose the War

Ralph Peters in today's NY Post has the answer: QUIT. It's that simple. Increasingly, quitting looks like the new American Way of War. That's precisely what the Democratic Party wants America to do in Iraq. The Dems are looking to throw the game just to embarrass the Bush administration.

Forget about our dead soldiers, whose sacrifice is nothing but a political club for Democrats to wave in front of the media. Forget that our combat veterans are re-enlisting at remarkable rates — knowing they'll have to leave their families and go back to war again.

Just set a time-table for our troops to come home and show the world that America is an unreliable ally with no stomach for a fight, no matter the stakes involved. Tell the world that deserting the South Vietnamese and fleeing from Somalia weren't anomalies — that's what Americans do.

The irresponsibility of the Democrats on Capitol Hill is breathtaking.

They need us to fail, and they're going to make us fail, no matter the cost. They need to declare defeat before the 2006 mid-term elections and ensure a real debacle before 2008 — a bloody mess they'll blame on Bush, even though they made it themselves. (Thanks to Ted for the lead to Peters' story.)

And the lefty media are in cahoots with the Democrats. In a speech at the University of Toronto yesterday, Chris Matthews, host of the CNBC Hardball, said that Americans have still not learned to know their enemies instead of just hating them. "If we stop trying to figure out the other side, we've given up. The person on the other side is not evil -- they just have a different perspective."

Matthews said the U.S. decided to invade Iraq due to a combination of factors. "I think the father-son relationship with the Bushes is part of it. I think the oil thing is part of it. Our friendship with Israel is part of it and 9-11 created a kind of crazy Zeitgeist in the country."

The coalition of anti-war media types and liberal Democrats is following a familiar playbook.

North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap wrote in his memoirs that "We were not strong enough to drive out a half-million American troops, but that wasn't our aim. Our intention was to break the will of the American government to continue the war."

The Islamo-fascists know their history. A letter from al Qaeda leadership to Abu Musab Zarqawi the leader of the Iraqi terrorists said “The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam, and how they ran and left their agents, is noteworthy.” Al Qaeda’s belief is that the United States is irresolute and weak and that the Americans will take the first opportunity to "run."

Though we may run, we can never hide. Vice President Cheney said today that "It is a dangerous illusion to suppose that another retreat by the civilized world would satisfy the appetite of the terrorists and get them to leave us alone."

The only way we can lose this war is if the media and the Democrats convince us to quit. God help us if we do.