Iraq Wingnuttery in the LA Times

With all the activity today I almost missed Americans won't let Democrats lose Iraq by David Gelernter.

A FEW DAYS AGO, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) made a speech urging the U.S., in effect, to get out of Iraq the way we got out of Vietnam.

Leahy told the Senate that we cannot win in Iraq. "It has become increasingly apparent that the most powerful army in the world cannot stop a determined insurgency." (U.S. troops, Iraqi troops, long-suffering Iraqi civilians to Leahy: Thanks, senator, we needed that.) And Leahy announced that the president must lay out a public formula to tell the world just when U.S. troops will leave Iraq. Otherwise, Leahy said, he will urge the Senate to choke off the war by refusing to fund it. That's how the U.S. finally lost Vietnam: Congress snuffed out the money.

Now Mr Gelernter is the ultimate wingnut who lthinks the Vietnam war could have been won and the same with Iraq.

MANY OBSERVERS have noticed that Democrats of the left speak of Iraq as another Vietnam. Few have explained why: Because Democrats of the left want Iraq to be another Vietnam. Not that they took pleasure in Vietnamese suffering, but they rejoiced in the left-wing power surge that transformed the United States in the aftermath. Naturally, they hope to repeat that experience: to humiliate Republicans, moderate Democrats and the military by pinning the label "bloody failure" on another foreign war.

It's not going to happen.

Iraq is nothing like Vietnam, and the public knows it. In the recent referendum, 63% of Iraqi voters cast ballots. Each vote screamed defiance at terrorism and defeatism. Each vote told the world that terrorism will lose and democracy will win, that Iraqis trust the United States to help protect them against vengeful insurgents bent on murdering whoever dares to hope and care and vote.

An impressive 78% voted "yes" on the new constitution. Sunni Muslims said no, but many said it at the ballot box. The referendum made clear that ordinary people everywhere do want to govern themselves. Democracy could have worked in Vietnam too.

This nation will abandon the Democratic Party before it abandons Iraq.

Now Mr Gelernter throws around a lot of statistic's but ignores the fact that 47% of the Iraqis think it's alright to kill US soldiers and 80% want the Americans to leave. Now Iraq has one thing in common with Vietnam, a majority of the citizens don't like the Americans. A major difference is Vietnam didn't have Vietnam preceding it. Many remember Vietnam and most have heard the nightmarish history. I'm sorry Mr Gelernter but the American people are already at the end of their collective rope. They know they were lied to, they know the war has been waged incompetently and they are tired of the cost in live and treasure. I only hope the Democrats don't make the same mistake Mr Gelernter has made.

Note
If there was any doubt about David Gelernter's wingnut credentials he is the author of Bush's Greatness in The Weekly Standard.