White Flag or Mushroom Cloud?

The GOP is (finally) getting ready to fight back against the Dems on the subject of Iraq. Matt Drudge reports exclusively.

The DRUDGE REPORT has learned from a top GOP operative that the Republican National Committee will provide state parties with a web video prior to release tomorrow afternoon that shows a white flag waving over images of Democrat leaders making anti-war remarks.

The ad is in response to the controversial comments Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean and 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry made earlier in the week.

A Democratic strategist who had the web ad described to her said, “This is way over the top but we have no one to blame but Dean, Kerry and others who continue to pander to the anti-war activists within our party.”

The web video advances the Republican contention that the Democrats only have a “retreat and defeat” message on the war in Iraq.

The video highlights the effect Democrats can have on the morale of U.S. soldiers.

One Republican strategist familiar with the ad said, “The Democrats, especially Howard Dean have a way of trying to turn the tables and say ‘that’s not what I meant’ – its just those ‘evil Republicans’ This video will make them crazy – it reinforces what they really believe with what they actually said – and that is devastating for the Democratic Party.”

Developing...

The white flag ad sounds like a very good one. Here's my contribution to the merriment at the expense of the Defeatocrats: I see that the Democrats have progressed (Get it?) from wearing white sheets (like Senator and former Kleagle Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia) to waving them.

But the humor is a little forced for me these days, for the time to start this particular rhetorical counteroffensive was months ago, before Dean felt his oats enough to start bellowing again. (And arguably, it was long before we reached the point where the Democrats thought they could win the Presidency with an anti-war candidate.) Our troops have been winning this one convincingly, despite numerous unreasonable restraints from day one, but the Republicans, most notably the President, have been failing to fight the war of ideas on the home front. This is a serious omission in a republic which is at war.

So now, when Iraq should (and probably will) be winding down, the GOP is expending precious energy explaining why we should be fighting a war (the one in Iraq) we are almost finished with -- in the same sense that we finished World War II long before we stopped occupying Japan and Germany. In the meantime, Iran and North Korea have been lost in the shuffle. Remember them? They were the other two members of the Axis of Evil. I'd be happy to see us talking about solving just one of those problems. Let's focus on Iran, which appears to be the more dangerous.

As far as I can tell, American military action to prevent Iran -- potentially months away from having nukes and working on acquiring missile technology -- isn't even being considered, and this is on the heels of reports that it will be very difficult (if not impossible) for Israel to clean up this mess for us. In the meantime, the Iranian regime is giving us plenty of free, demonstrative advice (In the form of an assassin-president who questions the Holocaust when he isn't planning one of his own.) that we shouldn't let them come anywhere close to getting the bomb.

Yes. Iran is about to get the bomb and the GOP is just now starting to make the case for action in Iraq?!?!? Memo to the GOP: While it might be easy and kinda fun to kick the Democrats around, the real enemy is getting ready to nuke us. The Democrats, with their virulent defeatism in a time of war, may indeed be acting like a politician's wet dream. But please don't let that distract you from the fact that -- um -- it's a time of war!

As a voter, I see that my choice is between a white flag and a mushroom cloud. But which mushroom cloud will it be if I continue to support the Republicans? If I vote against the white flag, will you have the guts to do what it takes against Iran? In short, will you please see to it that if there are to be any mushroom clouds in the forecast, they are in Iran rather than Israel or, God forbid, the United States?

It's fine to kick the Dems around a little: They deserve it. But if that's all you do, you are stooping to their level: Fantasy politics in a real world.

-- CAV