Translate

Thursday, February 03, 2005

Defeatist Democrats get it wrong again about Iraq

At what point does the left — whether they be politicians or journalists — lose all credibility? I’ve been thinking about this as Iraqi citizens went to the polls in astonishing numbers Sunday and defied not only the terrorist thugs, but the defeatist liberals.

An estimated 8 million courageous Iraqi men and women cast ballots in the nation’s first Democratic election in more than 50 years. They went to the polls despite threats from terrorists that they would be gunned down as they stood in line to vote.

They showed up to vote despite predictions of "bloodbaths" by all-knowing liberal journalists, who too often sympathize with the terrorists. They stood in line for hours to vote despite the best efforts of John Kerry, Barbara Boxer and Ted Kennedy to discourage them from taking their country back from blood-thirsty savages.

There was violence in Iraq on Sunday, with 44 people losing their lives attempting to vote. Sadly, 44 dead is a relatively good day in Iraq, where terrorists have turned their attacks to schools, hospitals, mosques and humanitarian workers in their effort to prevent Democracy from taking root in Iraq. The fact that only 44 people died out of the 8 million who stood in line outside Iraq’s 5,200 precincts is remarkable.

Regardless if you support the war in Iraq, regardless if you voted for George W. Bush, you’d have to be an incredibly callous individual not to feel joy for the Iraqi people, who have endured more than 30 years of brutality under Saddam Hussein.

There were people, both in the United States and across the world, who could not bring themselves to put aside their self-absorbed agendas and feel genuine pride for the success of the Iraqi elections. I’m not talking only about Osama bin Laden, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Kofi Annan and Jacques Chirac.

Having failed to oust George W. Bush on Nov. 2, 2004, the leftist gaggle of aimless Democrats, clueless journalists and corrupt world leaders turned their attention to the Iraqi elections.

They called for delays. They encouraged boycotts. They said the U.S. could not possibly provide security for the elections. The United Nations, which wanted to send observers to monitor the U.S. presidential election, couldn’t muster much enthusiasm to assist with the election in Iraq.

Sourpuss John Forbes Kerry went on "Meet The Press" Sunday morning to caution Americans about the significance of successful elections in Iraq. Mr. "Wrong War at the Wrong Time at the Wrong Place" got it all wrong again.

If you watched "Hardball" on MSNBC as the vote approached, you heard the loudmouth, know-nothing Chris Matthews predict that the election would "demolish" Iraq.

Matthews opened his show with these remarks: "Birth of a nation — will elections unite Iraq or ignite civil war? Will this weekend’s vote create a country or demolish it? ... For Iraqis, a moment teeming with risk and potential: liberation or devastation."

Pessimism ruled even at Fox News, where reporter Steve Harrigan, who spent the last two years in Iraq, was beating the drums of defeat Friday during an appearance on Fox & Friends. "I think there’s going to be a bloodbath on Sunday," Harrigan predicted. "All over the place, especially in Baghdad and a few other cities, Mosul. About half the country’s in big trouble."

NBC "Today Show" co-host Matt Lauer hit on the same theme as he began Friday’s show with this comment: "Bloody countdown. Amid growing violence, will Iraq be able to hold its first free elections in more than 50 years?"

And where would we be without the sparkling commentary of Canadian-exile Peter Jennings, who went to Iraq last week hoping to report on the failure of the elections.

Despite reality staring him in the face Sunday night, this is what he said on the ABC Evening News: "It seemed a strange way to experience the democratic process, from the back of a heavily-armored vehicle," Jennings said. In "parts of the Sunni Muslim heartland, it looks as if the election process has been rejected," Jennings added. "Without Sunni participation, somehow, the future here is still pretty bleak."

If you want to read more about how disappointed the liberal media was at how well the Iraqi elections went, check out a terrific Web site run by the Media Research Center, which bills itself as America’s Media Watchdog. The site is www.mediaresearch.org.

My favorite piece of post-election analysis came from liberal funnyman Jon Stewart over at Comedy Central’s "The Daily Show." Stewart was interviewing an editor from Newsweek magazine Monday when he blurted out the essence of liberal angst over the war in Iraq: What if George Bush was right all along? What if bringing Democracy to Iraq is the key to peace and stability in the Middle East? And by extension, security for the United States?

What would that sudden insight do to everything liberals have been taught to believe? Faced with the stark realization that the world is round, how does a liberal go on when he’s spent his entire life believing the world is flat?

E-mail Tony Phyrillas at tphyrillas@pottsmerc.com

No comments: