Capitulation Caucus

Rich Lowry:

IT is growing in strength and boldness. It's not a political party or a cohesive movement - but it's on the verge of becoming the most significant force in the West, one that may shape our world for years, even decades, to come.

It is the Capitulation Caucus.

Its membership consists of most nationally elected Democrats in the United States, much of the American foreign-policy elite, the balance of the U.S. media, most international bureaucrats and nongovernmental organizations and the European political elite.

They are loosely united around their beliefs that the Iraq War is lost or not worth trying to win, that we have to accommodate ourselves to anti-Western thugs in the Middle East and that the United States today is a reckless, malign influence in the world.

On one day this past week, the Caucus had two high-profile symbolic standard-bearers: the captured British sailors smiling and shaking hands with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, thanking him for their release; and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi meeting with the criminal Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, relaying an offer from the Israelis to negotiate, without mentioning that they want him to abandon terrorism first. Pelosi and the sailors thus demonstrated the Caucus' favorite posture: the ingratiating cringe.

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America is now lurching toward a repeat of Vietnam and all the national neuroses that followed. The debate over Iraq is becoming less about how to win, than about how and when to lose. Should it be by September '08, as House Democrats propose, or by March '08, as Senate Democrats propose - or right away, as Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid is beginning to suggest with his flirtation with an immediate cutoff of funding for the war?

The narrative of defeat in Iraq is zealously defended. Sen. John McCain could have spoken more judiciously about hopeful signs in Iraq, but the alacrity with which much of the press denounced him for his optimism was extraordinary. It wants to impose an Eleventh Commandment: "Thou Shalt Not Covet Progress in Iraq."

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The Capitulation Caucus has not yet learned to respond to criticism well. Right now it is still mostly ignoring it as the Bush administration ignored their criticism for years. Eventually they will have to respond and make their case on something other than their hatred for success in Iraq. Many have never wanted to win in Iraq and believe they can get political gain from losing. They believe they can avoid the consequences for defeat as they did in Vietnam. But the consequences of that defeat was disaster for those left in Southeast Asia and a disaster for a generation of Democrats in the US. In this case retreat from Iraq will not end this war. It will give the enemy a huge victory and a base of operations with greater resources for his next attack. Don't worry though, they will blame that attack on Bush too.