The Democrat Iraq fantasy

Terrence Jeffrey:

The interesting thing about the plan that leading Democrats now advocate for Iraq is that its essential element is the same as the essential element of the plan pursued by those we are fighting. It is that we withdraw.

Now, if the Democrats' plan is not domestic partisan posturing, but a calculation predicated on the national interest, there are at least three possible explanations for this remarkable coincidence.

One is that the fighting in Iraq now (as opposed to the original and now irreversible decision to invade) is just a big mistake, that the United States and those attacking us have no fundamental conflicts of interest and that if we simply disengage, the net result will be that things go well for both us and them.

A second possibility is that the Democrats are mistaken: If we withdraw, the net result will be things go well for them and bad for us. A third possibility is that our enemies are mistaken: If we withdraw, the net result will be things go well for us and bad for them.

Sen. Hillary Clinton, who wants to be commander in chief, makes the case for possibility three. When Gen. David Petraeus testified in the Armed Services Committee on Tuesday, she called for bringing our troops home.

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Yet, since the 2006 elections, at least two ostensibly non-political authorities in the U.S. government have argued that withdrawing from Iraq would be bad for us. These authorities are the U.S. intelligence community and the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

In a National Intelligence Estimate completed in January 2007, before the troop surge, the intelligence community painted a dire picture of what would happen if the United States withdrew within 12 to 18 months.

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Contrast that with the Democrats' dark vision about what would happen in Iraq if we did the troop surge. Since it did not happen the way they predicted they continue to act as if it did and push their desperate desires for defeat and retreat. As we keep demonstrating the Democrats were wrong the Democrats keep pushing their same failed vision. They really hope for what Jeffrey describes as the second possibility so they can blame the disaster on Bush and Republicans and run against the use of force again for 40 years. That is there real Iraq fantasy.