Retreat is Victory! Surrender is Esteem!

The Washington Post has a number of columns today urging immediate withdrawal from Iraq. However, methinks our esteemed essayists have no idea what a 'consequence" is, or what the definition of "morality" might be.

First up is E.J Dionne:

But those who spent the past four years hyping threats, underestimating costs, ignoring rational warnings, painting unrealistic futures and savaging their opponents have been discredited. This awakening is the first step toward rebuilding our country's influence and power.

While I too find the hyping of threats (and of our enemy's strenghts) downright dangerous; I am taking Dionne here to mean that the world would be a safer place with Saddam Hussien still running Iraq.
Saddam - a man whom fought an eight year war with Iran (that cost over a million lives), a man who invaded and raped Kuwait, who bombed Israel, gassed the Kurds, and funded terrorists worldwide, not to mention tormenting vast segments of his own population. Yes, Dionne says we would be better off with this monster still in place - and by retreating from this fight, by saying we are sorry for deposing him, by apologizing to the French for not heeding their superior wisdom, we can rebuild our nation's "influence and power".

Does this man ever stop to think before he writes? For sure he doesn't think of the consequences of the policies he offers - after all, once we leave - with the job unfinished - who does he think will take over in Iraq? Dionne can't tell you, because he knows nothing would harm America's influence and power more than to see Iraq spin into madness....

Next genius up to the plate is reactionary racist Eugene Robinson, who tell us there is "No Time for Patience in Iraq":

The president says all he wants is a little forbearance while his so-called "surge" plan is given time to work. But most Americans have long since run out of patience....

They....abandoned the traditional U.S. "honest broker" position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

George Bush, Dick Cheney and the rest of this administration encountered a dangerous, unstable Middle East and proceeded to make it more dangerous and more unstable.
And we're supposed to have just a little more patience, because, as the president said, "there's a lot more work" to be done? I'd say they've already done more than enough, wouldn't you?

So get out, now! Don't try to fix the problem, run away! Who cares if the "surge" is showing a positive effect, we can't take the chance that it may work! And while we are doing it, let's throw our arms around our good friends, the peaceful Palestinians!

And why do we stick with the Israelis, Mr. Robinson? Because they have the money and power to influence Washington, you say? No, because Americans are a moral people...and what is morality, you ask? I'll let Ayn Rand school you:

"What is morality?" she asked.

"Judgement to distinguish right and wrong, vision to see the truth, courage to act upon it, dedication to that which is good, integrity to stand by the good at any price.

Get it, Eugene? Israel is the good in that hellhole of a region - and that's why if we are to be honest brokers, we must stand with them.

Dear God, there's more - Richard Cohen, vilest of the bottom-dwellers, says calling dead American soldiers "wasted lives" is a phrase that should be more in vouge. Not because he hates the troops, you see -

But some sort of finger has to be pointed at the president and some sort of reminder offered that it is not just a policy that has failed but that people have been killed or wounded.

So dead soldiers need to be tossed about as a political tool to bring down the President! But hey, Cohen supports the troops! Don't say otherwise - you'd be questioning his patriotism!

Finally Anne Applebaum notes that the world has noted with a shrug and a yawn the confessions of al-Qaeda mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed, architect of 9/11. She blames America.

I blame the world. And I blame Anne, for helping to create the enviornment which allows the world to shrug with a feeling of moral smugness....