How else can I say this, the DNC seems to be exhibiting all the classic symptoms of “Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID),” AKA, Schizophrenia. And I’m not saying this because there are varying opinions within the Democratic Party. Even wildly varying opinions for that matter.

No, my problem is with the fact that you see wildly varying opinions within the same individuals in this same party. The father of all DID DNCers, of course, is Senator Kerry, the guy who actually did vote for the $87 billion, before he voted against it. The guy who voted FOR the war, before he voted AGAINST the war. The guy who supports the troops, before he accuses them of terrorizing women and children in Iraq. The guy who insists that Saddam Hussein is a menace to the world, before he insists that he was not.

Ow, my head!

So, pre-November of 2004, DNC leaders were telling us that the President was “lax.” The President was “asleep at the wheel. President Bush ignored all the signs and he caused 9/11. Even worse, after 9/11, he wasn’t doing enough to prevent terror at home, just fighting wars abroad to keep Americans distracted.

After November of 2004, the message began to shift, from the “failure of Iraq” to the accusation, recently, that the President was “going too far” in the war on terror. Wiretapping international calls to and from likely terrorists in order to gather intelligence (and that with bipartisan support from Congress, no less)? Preposterous! Dangerous! Illegal!!!

Ummm… No it’s not.

Yes it IS!!!

No, really, it’s not.

IT IS!!

Really, it’s…

Shut up!! It IS!!!!

Okay, now I’m sounding schizo.

How about this, keeping terrorists in secret facilities throughout the world in order to gather actionable intelligence that can be used to deter future attacks on the US and its allies? Again, outraged screams from the left.

The use of some intimidating interrigation techniques? A mortal sin, apparently. Or so says the radical left.

Okay, so, let me get this straight…

• We’ve had not even ONE terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11
• The President as well as civilian and military leaders have stated with no room for equivocation that their methods of intelligence gathering has helped bring about this miraculous feat.
• Yet many DNC leaders, in all their wisdom, want us to discontinue the very programs which have helped keep us all safe over the past four years?

Well, I guess we’ll know who to blame when the next terrorist attack does come, won’t we?

Yup. The DID DNC.

You can rightly critisize George W Bush and his administration for their stubborn stances on many issues. At times, it’s like watching a hungry bulldog which has it’s jaws firmly clamped onto a nice juicy bone.

But I far prefer this weakness to what the Democrats are doing in Washington. For DNC leaders, it seems that every day we get a new nuance on one issue or another. Even worse, one Democrat is likely to have a somewhat to completely different view of any given issue than another. They cannot agree on the principles or policy of ANYTHING.

And the ones who do show firm and unbending support for our troops and for the war in Iraq, such as Joe Leiberman, are chastized by those who do not. Do you think this gives voters more or less confidence in the Democratic Party as we prepare to enter yet another election season?

So, what do you do when nearly every leader in your party disagrees with every other leader? You do what House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi did yesterday, hail it as “diversity.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said yesterday that Democrats should not seek a unified position on an exit strategy in Iraq, calling the war a matter of individual conscience and saying differing positions within the caucus are a source of strength for the party.

Pelosi said Democrats will produce an issue agenda for the 2006 elections but it will not include a position on Iraq. There is consensus within the party that President Bush has mismanaged the war and that a new course is needed, but House Democrats should be free to take individual positions, she sad.

“There is no one Democratic voice . . . and there is no one Democratic position,” Pelosi said in an interview with Washington Post reporters and editors.

So, in other words, the “other” major political party in this country has agreed to disagree. And they think they’ll be successful in 2006?!

But, if anything is certain of the DNC these days, it’s their ever-changing stance on Iraq. Once the polls show Americans to be completely unimpressed with this option, they’ll change again.

Remember the movie that came out in 1984 called, The Karate Kid? In the movie, Mr. Miagi was explaining to Daniel-san that he had to take one position or another in life:

Daniel-san, must talk. Man walk on road. Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk down middle, sooner or later, get squished [makes squish gesture] just like grape. Same here. You karate do “yes,” or karate do “no.” You karate do “guess so,” [makes squish gesture] just like grape. Understand?

Okay, so let’s explain this whole thing regarding the art of combat (true of both Karate and of war) to those leaders who can’t even agree in their own minds on which stance they should take. Let’s imagine Mr. Miyagi sitting down with Senator Kerry to have the same talk:

Kerry-san, must talk. Man walk on road. Walk left side, safe. Walk right side, safe. Walk down middle, sooner or later, get squished [makes squish gesture] just like grape. Just like you get squished in 2004.

Same here. You Iraq support “yes,” or support “no.” You troops support “Yes” or support “no.” You Iraq and troops support “maybe,” [makes squish gesture] just like grape again in 2006. Understand?

Good advice; don’t you think?

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.

Here is a classic example of a “sunshine patriot”:

“We’ve got nation building by the U.S. military, and that’s not a mission for the U.S. military,” Murtha said. “I’ve said this over and over again: They’re not good at nation building. You’ve given them a mission which they cannot carry out. They do the best they can, but they can’t do it.”
Rep. John Murtha - Pennsylvania
December 14, 2005

But he supports the troops!

Today, Howard Dean, the Chairman of the Democratic National Committee no less, declared all hopes of a US victory in Iraq to be mistaken:

Saying the “idea that we’re going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong,” Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.

Dean made his comments in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio.

“I’ve seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, ‘just another year, just stay the course, we’ll have a victory.’ Well, we didn’t have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening.”

Two quick thoughts here:

• Dean absolutely believes that Iraq is just another Viet Nam.
• Rather than stay and fight the terrorists, Dean believes we should run as fast as we can away from terrorists.

And, as outrageous and cowardly as that statement is, Dean doesn’t stop there. He then went on to compare the controversy over pre-war intelligence to Watergate:

“What we see today is very much like what was going in Watergate,” Dean said. “It turns out there is a lot of good evidence that President Bush did not tell the truth when he was asking Congress for the power to go to war. The President said last week that Congress saw the same intelligence that he did in making the decision to go to war, and that is flat out wrong. The President withheld some intelligence from the Senate Intelligence Committee. He withheld the report from the CIA that in fact there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction (in Iraq), that they did not have a nuclear program. They (the White House) selectively gave intelligence to the United States Senate and the United States Congress and got them to give the go ahead to attack these people.”

So, Iraq is Viet Nam and since the whole Plame-gate issue has fizzled out, the pre-war intelligence issue becomes the new Watergate comparison.

Have I not said this over and over? This is exactly what liberals in general and DNC leaders in particular have been dreaming of for some time now… A return to the glory days when they forced the US to retreat from South Viet Nam — then cut off all economic and military aid to that country, insuring that South Viet Nam would fall and hundreds of thousands slaughtered — and President Nixon was toppled by the Watergate scandal.

What ideas do they have for victory today?

They want to “redeploy” the troops. In other words, pull them back from the war on terror… A war, I might add, that we are winning!

Despite media reports, Iraq has become almost a literal meat grinder for the insurgents and terrorists. It’s like the D-Con Roach Motel: The terrorists sneak in but they don’t get out.

And that’s because US and Iraqi forces are over there kicking their butts. Yes, they are taking casualties, but their performance has also been magnificent. Consider what US forces have been asked to do over the years:

• Topple Saddam’s Regmine
• Find Saddam and root out the insurgency
• Help rebuild Iraqi schools, hospitals, communities, and their infrastructure.
• Train the new Iraqi military and police force.
• Protect Iraqi citizens, especially during times when they are voting on their new government.
• and the list goes on…

Our troops have done everything asked of them, and done it very well. And now DNC Chairman Dean wants them to retreat.

Well, that makes sense to me, because so many (not all) DNC leaders have chosen to turn tail and run on this issue. Now they want our troops to follow their example.

Conservatives have been saying for months now that Democrats are once again becoming the party of McGovern. Just yesterday, Rush dared the DNC to just go the rest of the way and declare their wish to see a complete and immediate withdrawal.

Looks to me like they decided to do exactly that.

Remember what happened to McGovern? Think about it.

David Flanagan
Viewpointjournal.com