WASHINGTON -- It looks like a death wish to me. The Democrats'
recent all-night debate to confect legislation for pulling our
troops out of Iraq immediately if not sooner suggests that they
are, en masse, afflicted with a death wish -- and if their retreat
gets more of our troops killed while transforming Iraq into bloody
anarchy, they do not seem to care. Hysteria has seized them. Not
long ago most of them were prepared to give General David
Petraeus's new strategy a chance. After all, the Senate returned
him to Iraq by an 81 to 0 vote. Now the Democrats want the general
to begin a retreat even before tendering his agreed upon September
report -- a death wish, I say.
The evidence is that the American people are watching this
Congress and what they see they do not like. According to a recent
Zogby poll, this Democrat-controlled Congress is now more unpopular
than President George W. Bush, who, incidentally, will not be
seeking reelection. Maybe many of these Democratic solons plan to
retire too. According to the Zogby poll, 83% of the American people
say the Democratic Congress is doing only a fair to poor job. Just
66% hold such a sour view of the President. In fact, this
Democrat-controlled Congress is even more unpopular than the
Republican-controlled Congress that it replaced. On its deathbed
the Republican-controlled Congress had but a 23% approval rating.
Today's Democrats have a 14% approval rating. I say death wish!
What makes this all the more bizarre is that General Petraeus's
new strategy seems to be working. Anbar province was until recently
a lost cause. Al Qaeda was having its way with the place. But its
way was repellently brutal to local Iraqis, who increasingly saw al
Qaeda as even more alien than the troops of the Coalition. About a
year ago local leaders in Anbar began siding with us, and now their
fighters working with our soldiers and the Iraqi army have sent al
Qaeda packing. Ramadi, once an al Qaeda model for Sharia, is one of
the safest cities in Iraq.
Part of the explanation is the savage brand of Sharia imposed by
al Qaeda in Ramadi. It has also been imposed by al Qaeda in Diyala
province. There grisly torture chambers were discovered after our
military liberated the province's major city, Baqubah. Local
residents directed the Americans to a building where they found the
instruments of torture. Nearby, corpses, many headless, were
buried. Diyala, not surprisingly, is going the way of Anbar. In
recent weeks our troops mounted a deadly operation against al
Qaeda, killing hundreds and capturing more. As in Anbar, local
sheiks have come to our side, recognizing that we will leave their
province a lot faster than victorious al Qaeda and we will leave
their lands in relative freedom.
Once again a catalyst for the sheiks' cooperation was al Qaeda's
brand of Sharia. Al Qaeda had brought in foreign judges, called
Muftis. Their punishment of transgressions committed by local
residents included murdering children, often with public
beheadings. "Loose" morals were also punished. For instance, if a
local was caught carrying tomatoes in the same bag as cucumbers,
the bearer of such a lewd mix would be beaten or worse. On a more
amusing note, al Qaeda's muftis also seem to share our
progressives' disapproval of tobacco. Their punishment, however, is
even harsher. Any resident of Diyala found smoking in public or
even sporting nicotine stains had his or her offending fingers
chopped off. Not even Mayor Michael Bloomberg has gone that
far.
Now comes word that early this month our troops captured Khaled
Abdul-Fattah Dawoud al-Mashhadani, Abu Shahid for short.
Embarrassingly for him he was nabbed July 4. According to Brigadier
General Kevin Bergner, he is "believed to be the most senior Iraqi
in al Qaeda in Iraq network." Some of the muftis captured in
Baqubah were fleeing the city hidden in women's traditional dress.
I wonder what Abu Shahid was wearing. Would it be considered cruel
punishment to inflict a bag of tomatoes and cucumbers on him? What
would Senator Harry Reid say?
So now we are back to the Democrat-controlled Congress. Are its
members going to allow our troops to continue their work at least
up to the earlier agreed upon September report? It looks today as
though the Republicans are going to force them to. And what will
happen if that report finds things turning our way in Iraq? I would
not be surprised to see the Democrats saying they had predicted
victory all along. There is something amusingly oblivious about
them. They are like Don Quixote, though less good-natured.
topics:
Harry Reid, Military, Iraq, NATO
