Same Ole Choice: Ignore War Intel or Carry the Party Line (Again)

I’m amazed and saddened at the leaders of America’s left in that they are still making the same political-leadership mistake that led to the war in Iraq and 911:

• Ignoring intel
• Following the spin line instead

Every single debate over the Iraq War for the past 5 years, every 911 discussion for the past 6 years, every discussion on the Cole and Al Queda for the past 9 years…they’ve all revolved around a choice on the part of America’s political leaders:

• Ignoring intel
• Following the spin line instead

Maybe it’s intrinsic to the idea of being a politician to always look for the easy, pseudo-diplomatic means path of discussion. Surely it’s in the job description to constantly seek paths of advancing one’s power, authority, reputation, etc.  And of course 99% of the lawmakers on Capitol Hill are lawyers, and lawyers are but trained liars so by combining all three basic attributes of the modern American politician it only makes sense that they so often choose to spin intel or outright ignore it rather than do the ugly and acknowledge threats – let alone actually address em by taking action (which is always harder than just kicking back and excusing why action wasn’t taken-until it’s too late).

On the one hand we have fools – straight up, ignorant, FOOLS who make grandiose statements of international woe and national defeat…without attending intelligence briefings or even so much as reading the milblogs.  Gov Richardson, Sen Reid, my own congresscritter, Rep Tim Ryan, Dennis Kucinich….the list includes hundreds of lawmakers on the Hill.

On the other hand we’ve got the straight up deliberate liars – people who have seen the intel in closed door briefings, who have staffers and associates who actually read the non-msm news and see what’s happening, but deliberately deny it.  Often, they’ll even rave out claims that are in direct opposition to that which they know is true.  Boys and girls, that’s lying.  Again, the list of lawmakers on Capitol Hill who follow this path is in the hundreds.  What’s worse, is that the list of faux-journalists in this category is in the tens of thousands.

What will they do if the war ends?  Already we’ve seen the fear in the minds of their lemmings.  NRO, Daily Kos, HuffPo, all have had articles recently where the writers walked on eggshells to their “open-minded”/allegedly-liberal readers, and asked, ‘What if the surge works?’  Never forgetting the opposition to the war in Iraq was originally, and has always been primarily a political wedge issue; a crutch, crux, and catalyst for focusing and expressing Bush-hate as well as partisan alienation.  It’s with that overriding theme that the left is starting to quiver.  They know they’ve been used as political pawns by the DNC (nothing more than the complete impotence and arrogance of the Democrats’ Congress makes this any clearer), and now they’re not only forced to try and ignore the gross misleading that they’ve believed, but they’re forced on the other hand to see that there’s actually truth, reality, and-DARE WE EVEN SUGGEST IT-that perhaps President Bush did something right?

Acknowledging both: that the DNC deliberately misled their base as well as the fact that the war in Iraq is not lost…that’s a lot to ask of a people who believe that the twin towers were blown up by a secret cabal of imperial, capitalist pigs, or that hurricanes, tornadoes, a crisis in Burma, California wildfires, global warming, and everything under the sun is all…George W Bush’s fault.  Let them sell it, in fact, sell it more and more.  Every new claim has to be more outrageous than the last.  Every new example of Bush Derangement Syndrome is another story, another oped, another broadcast wasted campaigning against a man who is a lame duck, not even defending himself, and who is not running in 2008.

With every increasingly outrageous and nutty claim, comes the inevitable lack of fulfillment on the part of the left.  They can rant for years about impeachment, and ending the war, raising taxes, imposing a draft, and so forth, but even the most fervent and partisan Democrats see that such outrageous claims were just sizzle without steak.  Feeding the base more sizzle only makes them hungrier, and swing voters will go where there’s steak-not the sizzle that is years of the same ole accuse accuse accuse, conspiracy-theory based, false promises and baseless rhetoric that is so typified by Richardson today, Biden’s Al Queda claims re Iraq last week, or either of Hillary Clinton’s positions on any issue in the next two minutes.

A few weeks ago we had a Halloween Party.  As usual, some of us slipped off to talk politics.  All my far left friends (very very good people) were just “giving up on politics entirely” after being completely engrossed in debate with me for years-even decades in some cases.  The leaders of the left are staying the course in their war over Iraq.  Their supporters are not.  Oh the apathy!  Let’s face it, when even NRO, Kos, and Huffpo have pieces recognizing success in Iraq… it shows two things: the base is realizing the truth, and they’re trying to keep up the ole spin in spite of it. 

No different than their leaders who saw the true intel, and keep spinning away ala Richardson, Biden, etc.