Posted on 11/08/2006 1:33:06 PM PST by Molly Pitcher
The outcome of the 2006 midterm elections will have serious consequences for the war on terrorism and U.S. national security generally. If you liked the foreign-policy impotence of the 1970s, get ready for more.
There will be strong sentiment among some Democrats to cut funding for the Iraq war completely. They probably won’t do that right away, since the president would surely veto the bill if it is too extreme. It would also appear reckless to the large portion of the electorate that was not motivated by antiwar fervor. Yet, they will not allow funding to continue to grow, and will probably seek a major reduction. This will undoubtedly be couched in terms of “reorienting priorities” in the war on terrorism — shifting funds from Iraq to what will be called “homeland security” expenditures, actually rewards to their urban base. They will also push through largely symbolic funding measures for the hunt for Osama bin Laden so that if he turns up any time in the next two years they can claim credit. (Note to Dems: Increase the reward. We spend $10 million an hour in Iraq. Even an Iraq-war supporter of my solid credentials can see trading a day of that effort for a quarter-billion dollar reward for Osama, a level that might get the attention of the warlords giving him safe haven.)
The war effort will also be hampered since Pentagon is about to be hit by a rash of investigations as Democrats pay back the Angry Left part of their base with ritual humiliation of the architects of the war. One would guess that Secretary Rumsfeld would be a prime target, though others who have been in the Building since 2003 will also be on the list. Someone will have to go down. In a piece last May (anticipating this unfortunate development — sad to be right) I compared this election to 1874, when the Democrats took the House for the first time since the Civil War, in the middle of President Grant’s second term. Among others, they went after the secretary of War, William W. Belknap, who was impeached on bribery charges in 1876. Note that Belknap had already resigned before he was impeached, which set an interesting constitutional precedent. He was saved from conviction by the Republican controlled Senate, but the damage had been done. Of course, Belknap probably had committed crimes, unlike Secretary Rumsfeld, with whom the Democrats only have policy differences. It will be a measure of their radicalism if they seek to trump up some charges about deceiving the American people in the lead-up to war, a belief that has already been investigated several times and found to be baseless. But reality will take a back seat to political expediency; hearings and investigations will commence primarily because the Democrats will have the subpoena power.
One fears for the covert aspects of the war on terror, which are both necessary and beneficial. The “opposition by leak” technique that has hitherto been the m.o. will be replaced with formal hearings, the dominant motif being grandstanding with extreme umbrage. The model will be the Church/Pike hearings of the 1970s that discredited the intelligence community and rendered the United States helpless in the face of the threats we faced back then from international communism and rising radicalism in for example Iran. This too can’t be overplayed, since Democrats would be blamed for the inevitable reverses we would face overseas and perhaps at home (if a domestic attack followed their all out assault on our covert warriors it would not look good). But the 1970s hearings got out of control to the point where even the Democrat managers had to warn against the proliferation of leaks and the damage being done to the intelligence community. Too late by then, of course, the damage was done. It will be again.
Guantanamo and the other places in which terrorist detainees are held will come under serious scrutiny with the intent of closing them down. The administration might consider preempting this move by releasing more information on the detainees, who by and large are violent radicals who would just as soon kill Americans as look at them. The Democrats might overplay their hand on this one, moving boldly to cater to their hard-Left base and finding that as Americans learn more about Guantanamo they will approve of what is going on there. But the approach to the issue will still fit within the framework of time wasting distractions undertaken chiefly for political motives, and distracting energy from the war effort.
My greatest fear is that this Republican loss will be seen by our adversaries as a great victory. In the past year, U.S. resolve has been tested, and sadly we have not always risen to the occasion. We could be facing a replay of the end game in Vietnam, when insurgent leftists in the Democratic party brought about the defunding of military assistance for South Vietnam, and the North Vietnamese invaded and defeated our trusting ally. This has already been predicted by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nazrallah, and noted as a model for success by al Qaeda #2 Ayman al-Zawahiri. The rest of the decade saw the nadir of American power in the Cold War, a period when the Soviet Union could justly be said to be winning. As we focus inward on recriminations and political maneuvers, other rogue countries, such as North Korea and Iran, will sense that now is the time to press their various foreign policy and security agendas. The United States faces the possibility of becoming again what President Nixon called “a pitiful, helpless giant” in face of the forces arrayed against us. Maybe the Democratic party will surprise us by showing a rare degree of bipartisan statesmanship in time of war, but I would not bet on it.
Me neither.
The Left WERE terrorists in the 1970s. Assassinations, arsons, bombings...
Radical chic carried a gun and wasn't afraid to use it.
Then why did you post it? This is clearly vanity day on FreeRepublic.
ROFLOL ... I'm not sure it's allowed to post anything that's not a vanity today.
What you said.
Disco and tequila sunrises are right around the corner.
LOL! Yes, I'm just feeling mischievous!
Bumping for later response.
I better get my white suit and red satin disco shoes out of storaage....I knew my Donna Summer collection would come in handy someday
It's 1974 again.
The ME will fall apart. Oil will be short.
Iraq, Afganistan, and Israel will be treated with the same respect and support we gave the Shah and the South Vietnamese.
Well, at least they weren't trying to take away our guns...
Hopefully you still have some cocaine.
You can trade it for gasoline.
I saw a teenager last night with a hairstyle I have not seen since 1979. I should have known it was an omen.
Well, if you set up a GESTAPO type intelligence agency that spies into every bank transaction in the world that is above $2000, you wanna know how many people you gonna PISS OFF?
The November 2006 elections are the triumph of George McGovern.
The Democrats do not have to pass a bill to cut funding for the troops. All they have to do is not include the Iraq operation in the next budget bill. Or they can omit the Defense Department entirely. Some of them would love to do just that. They feel that America would have no enemies if it was run totally by the Left. They believe all the Jihadists and America Haters in the world would love America if the Left was truly and irrevocably in charge.They are friends to anyone who Hates America and wants to destroy it because they believe that is the only rational view as America is not a Socialist Paradise.
When monkeys fly out of my butt!
Good post Molly.
haha
The left told the same lie in the 60's and 70's. Yet even after nearly all American soldiers returned, and even after the Paris Peace Accords of '73 were signed, the left continued, at every turn, to actively defund, deligitimize, demoralize and defeat South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
They will try to do the same thing to Iraq, even if and after we remove ground troops. And, also as with Vietnam, they won't give a damn how many, even how many million, local peoples are butchered or enslaved in consequence.
IOW, even if the left succeeds in engineering a premature troop withdrawal, conservatives and all other responsible parties MUST still fight for adequate aid to Iraq. The left will NOT let this go.
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