Victor Davis Hanson has done it again. This is one hell of a editorial:
Most Americans accept that if the United States cannot stabilize Iraq, and, in frustration and acrimony, withdraws in defeat, crises follow. The only disagreement is over how bad they will be.
[…]Be that as it may, we sometimes forget that there are also more insidious ripples that can emanate from Iraq.
[…]Rather, the conventional wisdom will arise that an infantile Middle East ipso facto — whether due to Islamism, tribalism, gender apartheid, sectarianism, engrained dictatorship, or corruption — is simply incapable at this time of consensual government. Anyone who seeks such reform, whether in the Gulf, Palestine, Lebanon, or Egypt, is to be written off not only as naïve, but as reckless as well. A Libyan dissident, a feminist writer in Egypt, or an Iraqi intellectual who decries Western indifference to their plight or American tolerance of regional dictatorships will be told to quit whining and get a life, by a been-there/done-that American public.
Both carping hothouse Arab intellectuals and Western liberals should be put on notice of this change to come. However imperfect, however flawed, however improperly explained our efforts in Iraq were, they nevertheless represented a costly American about-face to offer something in the Middle East other than theocracy or dictatorship — something we are not likely to see again in our lifetime.
Democrats and liberals should likewise realize that for all their hatred of George Bush and the partisan points to be gained by coddling up to the libertarian and paleo-conservative Right, George Bush’s embrace of freedom was far closer to their own past rhetoric than almost any Republican administration in history. And such an effort to foster democracy was in the long run smart as well, since ultimately a free Iraq would be the worst nightmare of the Islamic jihadists — as we read repeatedly in the rantings of Dr. Zawahiri.
In short, the next Democratic president who wishes to do something about the genocide in Darfur or another mass murderer in the Middle East, will find no support from Republicans, or — in no small part due to liberals’ slurs against the war they voted for — from the country at large.
But the Democrats and the left, hell some on the right even, cannot see five minutes in the future. They care only about who will be in office in the next election and care little about the effects of our defeat in Iraq waaaay into the future.
While the Democrats continue to live only to display their undying hate for President Bush, they are seemingly blind to the fact that because of their actions they may actually reap a legacy that seriously limits a future Democrat President’s ability to achieve idealistic objectives, such as putting a stop the genocide in Darfur. Who would believe that the mighty United States will have the stomach for a bloody war when they couldn’t win a fight against Fanatic Islam?
The effect that our Democrat forced withdrawal in Vietnam had on our country was severe and long. The effect of us losing in Iraq will be much worse for decades to come.
UPDATE
Dr. Sanity reminds us of what some Democrats said about Iraq before the war.
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