North Star Writers Group

The Democrats' performance on Iraq and the war on terror as the so-called "loyal opposition" is nothing short of abysmal. At best, it is naive, negligent and derelict. At worst, it is outright encouraging and enabling of the enemy. (It may be necessary to remind Democrats, by the way, that the enemy is not President Bush. That they even need such reminding should tell you something.)

For whatever reasons, they are either unable or unwilling to offer a thoughtful, mature alternative to what President Bush proposes. Instead, they remain unserious about the true stakes involved, infantile in their partisanship, and pusillanimous in their unwillingness to take their position through to its logical outcome.

Unserious. Do Democrats really think that pulling out of Iraq completely is magically going to make the place all roses and sunshine? That Shiites and Sunnis will all hold hands and start singing "Kumbaya" or a John Lennon peace ditty? If so, they've either been hitting their leftover’60s drug stash again or believe Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" – in which he invents a phony idyllic Iraq under Saddam that never existed – really is a documentary rather than fiction.

And even if we could somehow abandon Iraq and have things there turn out OK, there is still the matter of the permanent and irreparable damage such a welching would do to America's word in the future. We would be telling the world we are not to be trusted to finish anything we start. This would be devastating.

But does this even appear on the Democrats' radar screen? Do they even care? Not enough to offer even a single alternative idea, which they have failed to do from day one. Not once have they come up with their own plan or policy - beyond flat-out retreat and/or surrender. Even now, possessing a Congressional majority, which one would think would force them to step up to the plate at least a little, they simply snipe and undermine and otherwise assiduously avoid offering anything constructive at all. Some of this is due to their leftover sore-loser emotions of Florida 2000. This causes Democrats to oppose absolutely everything Bush says and does, since in their minds he should never have been President in the first place. But when you cannot put that aside long enough to be responsible and serious, as it is your job to be, you are being derelict in your duty.

Infantile. What other word can better describe an opposition that amounts to little more than name-calling? The hatred begun by the MoveOn.org types in the wake of Florida 2000 has become a disease that has consumed and is ravaging the Democrats. Some of us like to call it BDS: Bush Derangement Syndrome. It turns formerly intelligent and honorable - although still wrong - liberals into raving lunatics, bleating out the same substance-free catch-phrases over and over again. (i.e. "Bush lied, people died!" etc. etc.) We're rapidly reaching the point where 95 percent of the Democratic caucus could be replaced by trained parakeets or cockatoos during floor debates and no one would be able to tell the difference.

If Democrats truly wanted to win over the masses, they would stay calm and mature. They would explain why Bush was wrong and offer a constructive alternative, perhaps more than one. They would acknowledge their own human limits and fallibility and be willing to adjust or change if facts on the ground indicated their original premise was incorrect. Most of all, they would put the best interest of the country over their unbelievably childish hyper-partisanship. But like a three-year-old in full-throated tantrum, all Democrats want to do is point their finger and cry in a whiny know-it-all voice: "Nyaah, nyaah, nyahh, you were wrong! You big stupid!" (Apologies in advance if this comparison is an insult to the three-year-olds of America, who have a legitimate excuse for their tantrums in that they really are three years old and not just acting like it.)

• Pusillanimous - Webster's dictionary defines the word as "marked by a contemptible timidity; lacking courage and resolution." There cannot be a more accurate description of the Democrats' high rhetorical dudgeon against the Iraq war, blasting everything President Bush has ever said or done, while gutlessly unable to muster anything but a meaningless resolution against it. To say nothing of a single alternative idea that could actually be implemented.

If Bush is so completely wrong all of the time, how can the Democrats in good conscience not de-fund the war effort? And what does it say that Democrats will go ahead with a surge plan they despise? It's certainly not because they respect Bush, the presidency or its constitutional prerogative vis-a-vis war-making. Every back-stabbing word flying out of their despicable mouths belies that claim. No, they're just too cowardly to be completely honest and put their jobs on the line by taking an openly anti-American, defeatist position. (Of course, anyone with two brain cells left to rub together should be able to see right through this patently phony line of bull, but I digress.) Instead, they'll try to have it both ways – doing everything in their power to tie down President Bush like so many Lilliputians did Gulliver, then hypocritically blaming him for the results thereof - that they primarily caused.

America deserves and, frankly, needs better "opposition" than this. There is such a thing as honorable dissent and conscientious objection. But the Democrats offer nothing close to that. Their utterly vacuous resistance is staggeringly naive and irresponsible at best and could well be outright lethal at worst. The price of their denial of the true stakes involved and the effect of their ignorant (if not treasonous) behavior, I fear, will be paid in bloodshed well beyond the horror of 9/11. And even if that occurs halfway around the world rather than on the East Coast, it is a price far too high and one we cannot afford to pay.

To offer feedback on this column, click here.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.

This is Column # DKK44. Request permission to publish here.