Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

The disloyal opposition

Martin Gross:

I was raised as a liberal in the era of a patriotic Democratic Party. But the present party and its presidential candidate John Kerry are a source of great disappointment to me and to millions of other former Democrats.
That once-honored party has now turned dangerously leftward, establishing itself as the anti-American party, creating an unprecedented defeatist, disloyal opposition. Even during the Vietnam War, there were individual protests, but both parties refused to play partisan politics as long as America faced a difficult struggle.
Today the historic credo that the opposition should not give comfort to the enemy has been thrown out the window. The Democrats, in their not-so-slow drift leftward, have crossed the bounds of decent patriotic conduct during wartime, undermining the effort by impugning the honor and honesty of the president and commander in chief. If the polls are correct — the Democrats will pay for their disloyalty on Nov. 2.

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The Democratic Party is in a slide toward oblivion as it forgets its honored past and attempts to create a disloyal opposition, a new unfortunate trend in American political life. America needs two patriotic parties, but now has only one. The other, whose standard-bearer is John Kerry, can only destroy this nation with perennial defeatism and comforting our tyrannical enemies.

Insurgents cannot impose their will on Iraq

Amir Taheri:

WHILE kidnappings and head-choppings in the Sunni Triangle domi nate the news from Iraq, the real battle for that nation's future is fought in diplomatic, political and media arenas outside that country.

The terrorist movement in Iraq, at times graced with the label of "insurgency," is in no position to impose its will on the nation. With the help of its outside backers, it could, to be sure, continue kidnappings and killings for years.

More than a dozen countries (Colombia, Peru, Malaysia, the Philippines, Algeria, Egypt, etc.) have experienced similar terrorist movements in recent decades. In every case, the terrorists, having pushed the limits of brutality as far as they could, were ultimately defeated.

It took Peru almost a quarter-century to defeat and destroy the vicious Shining Path. At no time, however, did it manage to threaten the basic structures of the nation or, ultimately, to divert its process of democratization. In Colombia, an insurgency that dates back almost 40 years is now facing certain defeat. It took the British almost 12 years to defeat the so-called "insurgency" in Malaya which, despite massive support from China and the U.S.S.R., was doomed from the start.

The ultimate reason for terrorist movements' failure is the same that constitutes their raison d'etre: Individuals and groups choose terrorism because they know they cannot mobilize popular support.

The terrorist hopes to force history in his direction with the help of bombs and guns. He tries to substitute his will for the will of the people. While claiming to fight in the name of the people he is, in fact, excluding the people from the political process if only because "ordinary citizens" are not prepared to die, let alone kill, for abstract ideas.

So the "insurgency" in Iraq is going nowhere fast. It will be as roundly defeated as were its predecessors in so many other countries. The danger for Iraq's future lies elsewhere.

It comes, in part, from Americans who want Iraq to fail because they want President Bush to fail. Some 81 books paint the president as the devil incarnate; Bush-bashing is also the theme of three "documentaries" plus half a dozen Hollywood feature films. Never before in any mature democracy has a political leader aroused so much hatred from his domestic opponents.

Others want Iraq to fail because they want America to fail, with or without Bush. The bitter tone of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he declared the liberation of Iraq "illegal" shows that it is not the future of Iraq but the vilification of the United States that interests him.

Add to this the recent bizarre phrase from French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. The head of the Figaro press group went to see him about the kidnapping of two French journalists in Iraq; Raffarin assured him they would soon be freed, reportedly saying, "The Iraqi insurgents are our best allies."