North Star Writers Group

Once again, occurring with all the inevitable predictability and irritation of a summer ragweed allergy, the House Democrat leadership is holding a series of votes on surrendering in and retreating from Iraq. Apparently, one can never be enough. No, the Democrats have to vote (and lose) on this issue about as often as the rest of us eat meals. Do they think we can't figure out their opposition unless they do this 10 times over – every other week? Is this their political version of Animal House's Dean Wormer, putting President Bush on octuple-secret probation?

This can't be just about pandering to MoveOn.org. Yes, the Democrats are now totally unable and/or unwilling to do anything that deviates in even the slightest degree from what that bunch of far-left lunatics wants. Yes, for better or worse that bunch has now ineluctably become the Democratic Party's base. Yes, its hand reaches right up the posteriors of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Harry Reid and their presidential candidates, orchestrating their moves every bit as well as the best sock puppets ever made. But I cannot believe that Pelosi, Reid, Hillary, Obama, et.al. are all either that stupid or that disconnected from both reason and reality.

No, there must be some method to the apparent madness, some explanation for this otherwise utterly pointless repetition. And I think it is far simpler than any grandiose conspiracy theory. Democrats just plain want to lose in Iraq. In fact, they are determined to lose Iraq. But they're too gutless to just cut the funding and be done with it – the only constitutional action available to a branch of government not empowered to be commander in chief – as they don't want to be held responsible for the consequences. So they're trying every other way they can to undermine the effort and guarantee defeat, no matter how underhanded, unconstitutional and treasonous.

They agreed upon a schedule with Gen. David Petraeus this spring, supposedly giving him and the troop surge until the end of September, at which time Petraeus would provide a progress report. They have been voting to quit and get out pretty much constantly ever since, which motivates the enemy to continue attacks in hopes of sapping America's will to fight. We have found communications between Al Qaeda's top officials in Iraq saying exactly that – they believe if the conflict can be drawn out long enough, we will inevitably lose our stomach for it. The Democrats might as well have stuck a shiv between Petraeus's shoulder blades and been done with it.

And just what is it with liberals' inability to read a calendar properly, anyway? First they were insisting Al Qaeda didn't hate us until we went into Iraq, which was in April 2003. Never mind a decade of terrorist bombings around the globe that were ignored by President Clinton and his 2008 candidate "co-president," culminating in September 11, 2001, and now thinking July is really early October.

They have tried to dictate to President Bush, the real commander in chief, how to fight (if at all). They have tried to reassign the commander powers to Petraeus. They have tried pretty much every end-run around the Constitution they can invent to usurp the rightful authority of the commander in chief. (Hey, when you can't win a presidential election, what else is there?) And all this from people who held up their right hands, swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and in so doing lied through their teeth. If they are capable of this impeachable offense, why shouldn't one think them eager for defeat? What have they done or said that suggests otherwise? How much aid and comfort does it take before it starts to count?

It's time to call the left out before they manage to accomplish their nefarious task. I'm tired of trying to be nice, of giving the benefit of the doubt to those who don't deserve it, of attempting to get along with those who have an almost insatiable desire to see America destroyed if it can't be forcibly made over in their Marxist image. The Constitution is supposed to be the supreme law of the land, not something to be ignored or defied without consequence as ever-more-arrogant politicians see fit. And wrong ideas, even those based on unreality, have real-world consequences – a lesson I thought would have been irrevocably learned for all time on September 11, 2001.

Bluntly put, what they are trying to do will harm us all greatly and only the most irresponsible person would fail to sound an alarm over such an impending danger. They are, after all, playing with our very lives here. It's time to stop hiding behind euphemisms and pretend that a house divided against itself really isn't, and really can still stand strong, be stable and prosper.

So let's get it on. Hold one more vote – to cut the Iraq funding completely and totally. If it passes, then own and embrace defeat and all the results thereof in all their ignominy and horror. If it fails, accept it and move on. (You know, that term that's in your website's name but which, ironically, you are utterly incapable of doing.) No one is asking you to cheerlead, merely to shut up and stop undermining the effort. If you can't find it within yourself to even manage that, then we'll know once and for all whose side you're really on.

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