THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 118, June 7, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY TREADS CLOSE TO TREASON
By Alan Caruba
FULL STORY: In a time of war, it is understood that even political adversaries join
together to support the Commander-in-Chief. That has not been the case for several leading Democrats and what they are saying
of late treads extraordinarily close to being treasonous.
In late May, 2004, U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi, Minority Leader (i.e., Democratic Party floor leader) in the U.S. House of
Representatives, said:
“The situation in Iraq and the reckless economic policies in the United States speak to one issue
for me, and that is the competence of our leader. These policies are not working. But speaking
specifically to Iraq, we have a situation where — without adequate evidence — we put our
young people in harm’s way.”
Without adequate evidence? Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait? The dozen United Nations resolutions? The gassing of the Kurds? The
eight-year war with Iran? The widely held belief, shared by members of the Clinton administration, that Saddam Hussein had or was
manufacturing weapons of mass destruction?
Representative Pelosi could not have been more reckless. Her statement could only lend aid and comfort to the enemies of this
nation, enemies who would love nothing more than to see the U.S.A. withdraw from Iraq. It would be a defeat that would destroy
this nation’s reputation as a defender of liberty and it would doom the Middle East to the despotism that collaborates with and
supports the worldwide Islamic Jihad.
To suggest President Bush is incompetent is also to ignore the way the previous occupant of the Oval Office utterly degraded it with
his misbehavior involving a White House intern and his failure to address the growing menace of the Middle East as well as North
Korea. Not surprising, a former Democratic president, Jimmy Carter, judged to have been the most incompetent president in modern
times, is also reflecting Pelosi’s and other high ranking Democratic Party leaders' views being aired.
As Steven F. Hayward, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, pointed out in The Washington Times:
“In a recent interview in the American Prospect, Mr. Carter commented, ‘Now it seems as
though it is an attractive thing in Washington to resort to war in the very early state of resolving
an altercation; a completely unnecessary war that President Bush decided to launch against the
Iraqis is an example of that.'”
This is the same man candidate John Kerry suggested he might select to be his official envoy in the Middle East. Kerry tried
to back away from that trial balloon after Mr. Carter expressed blatant pro-Arafat sympathies.
Perhaps, though, the most reckless statements about President Bush and the invasion to liberate the Iraqis from a cruel,
psychopathic dictator came from U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (September, 2003):
“This war was made up in Texas, announced in January (2003) to the Republican leadership
that war was going to take place and was going to be good politically. This whole thing was
a fraud.”
In October, 2003, Kennedy said:
“The trumped up reasons for going to war have collapsed and the President’s war has been
revealed as mindless, needless, senseless, and reckless.”
If this did not lend “aid and comfort” to those opposing the rise of a constitutional democratic Iraq, the provision of civil and human
rights to a people who Saddam Hussein’s regime jailed, raped, and killed in vast numbers, then I don’t know how else to describe it.
What is surely the most reckless statement to date, however, was Sen. Kennedy’s comment after the revelations about the Abu
Ghraib prison mistreatment of some prisoners: “Saddam’s torture chambers have reopened under new management.” Kennedy literally
equated George W. Bush with Saddam Hussein!
What have we witnessed from the leadership of the Democratic Party?
We have seen them deliberately seek to undermine the credibility of the Commander-in-Chief.
We have seen them attempt to undermine the effectiveness of the Secretary of Defense and
the U.S. military. And their statements must surely have had some impact on the morale of the
troops in the field.
This goes far beyond mere partisanship, a disagreement over the reasons for the war. These statements and those that continue to
be issued represent a vicious attack on the President during a time of war, when any such comments are sure to stiffen the enemy's
resistance to U.S. objectives; primary among which is the extension of constitutional democracy throughout the Middle East.
The doctrine of preemptive war was established after the Islamic terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, decisively demonstrated that
America was no longer safe from attack. Would we have asked less of our President than to take steps to protect us from the threat?
The House Minority Leader calls him “incompetent.” The Senate’s leading voice compares him to Saddam Hussein. A former
president derides the need to exert our military power to protect this nation. And a former vice president, Al Gore, calls for the
resignation of those directing the war and responsible for homeland security.
Treason? Maybe not, but perilously close to it. The Democratic Party, despite its members in Congress having voted to grant
wartime powers to the President, is pursuing a self-serving political strategy, employing underhanded political tactics, and
advocating a highly questionable and very dangerous foreign and national-security policy, all of which smell of retreat and defeat.
Whether enough Americans will come to this conclusion and vote accordingly in the November, 2004, presidential election is the
big question, tha answer to which will determine our future.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
American Politics & Political Competition
American Government & the U.S. Presidency
Disloyalty, Subversion, Sedition, & Treason
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past columns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maplewood, New Jersey, 07040.
Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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