Gary Hart. Are you some kind of moron?

Mr. Hart, former Senator Hart, former Democratic Presidential hopeful Hart, philanderer Hart, has a pathetic op-ed today in The Washington Post. I am usually not so harsh, but these people have finally gone too far. Our effort in Iraq is too important for jerks like Hart to come in and lecture us on our failings.

The title of his op-ed is “Who Will Say ‘No More’?”. It is supposed to be a rallying cry to his fellow Democrats that someone needs to stand up and say “No More!” Presumably he means no more deaths. He never says what he means.

Well, lets start deconstructing this thing. Basically it boils down to the post I wrote yesterday about Iraq. Go re-read that post here before continuing on.

Off we go:

History will deal with George W. Bush and the neoconservatives who misled a mighty nation into a flawed war that is draining the finest military in the world, diverting Guard and reserve forces that should be on the front line of homeland defense, shredding international alliances that prevailed in two world wars and the Cold War, accumulating staggering deficits, misdirecting revenue from education to rebuilding Iraqi buildings we’ve blown up, and weakening America’s national security.

Yeah you are right, history will judge Bush. He put his Presidency and his legacy on the line when he decided the U.S. needed to invade Iraq. That is more than ol’ Bill did. I know that if we stick it out in Iraq and the Iraqi people rise to the challenge then history will forgive Bush for the lack of WMD’s. Remember EVERY SINGLE intelligence agency in the ENTIRE world KNEW Saddam still had a clandestine weapons program. Man that Karl Rove sure can pull a fast one.

“[S]hredding international alliances”, now, someone please explain which international alliances Bush has shredded. If you mean the pansy ass French and feckless Germans, yeah that sure was a blow to our security. After all, what will we do if France and Germany do not like us? What.Will.We.Do.

In their leaders, the American people look for strength, determination and self-confidence, but they also look for courage, wisdom, judgment and, in times of moral crisis, the willingness to say: “I was wrong.”

To stay silent during such a crisis, and particularly to harbor the thought that the administration’s misfortune is the Democrats’ fortune, is cowardly. In 2008 I want a leader who is willing now to say: “I made a mistake, and for my mistake I am going to Iraq and accompanying the next planeload of flag-draped coffins back to Dover Air Force Base. And I am going to ask forgiveness for my mistake from every parent who will talk to me.”[emphasis mine]

Ok, so you are going to tell our enemies that we were wrong. What sort of message do you think that will send to them and to the American people? You jackass. Sorry, I could not resist. Look, Presidents make decisions based on the best intelligence they have. Congress as well as other countries had the same intelligence. Hell, Clinton used the same intelligence to threaten war against Saddam back in 1998. What mistake did we make? Actually making an aggressor nation abide by UN resolutions and by the cease fire THEY signed to end the first Gulf War? There have been mistakes in planning and in execution, but that is war. You do not go around saying you are sorry every time you hit a bump in the road during war. I wrote an essay some time back (see here) that deals with how future Presidents are going to be hampered by our experience with the Iraq war and the lack of WMD’s. It is a shame, but setting a precedent of saying you are sorry…oh yeah, that will make the Islamo-fascists stop hating us.

Also, what good will it do to personally accompany the coffins back to the States? Do you really think the President has time to meet and great each and every coffin and corresponding family? I think Bush has done an admirable job in meeting with the ones he has met with. By your logic, you would have had FDR fly over to North Africa after the U.S. got its ass kicked by the Germans at Kasserine Pass and touch every coffin and then fly home and meet each of the families and tell him he is sorry that our tactics and equipment were outdated and that our leadership sucked? Again, what will that tell your enemy? It will tell them that once again, if you kill enough people, the President will back down from his moral and principled stand, crumple, beg for forgiveness and turn tail and run. Jackass.

Further, this leader should say: “I am now going to give a series of speeches across the country documenting how the administration did not tell the American people the truth, why this war is making our country more vulnerable and less secure, how we can drive a wedge between Iraqi insurgents and outside jihadists and leave Iraq for the Iraqis to govern, how we can repair the damage done to our military, what we and our allies can do to dry up the jihadists’ swamp, and what dramatic steps we must take to become energy-secure and prevent Gulf Wars III, IV and so on.”

Yeah a series of speeches. That’s it! No wonder Bush has been having such a hard time. He just needs to give a series of speeches and the insurgents will lay down their arms. This is kind of like Kerry plan to end the war. We never saw it, but he had a plan.

The real defeatists today are not those protesting the war. The real defeatists are those in power and their silent supporters in the opposition party who are reduced to repeating “Stay the course” even when the course, whatever it now is, is light years away from the one originally undertaken. [emphasis mine] The truth is we’re way off course. We’ve stumbled into a hornet’s nest. We’ve weakened ourselves at home and in the world. We are less secure today than before this war began.

Who now has the courage to say this?

We are staying the course in the sense that we CAN NOT LET IRAQ FAIL. We have been adapting and changing our tactics to deal with the very real threats that we face there. How are we off course? We are there, the war is going on, we are adapting our strategy to deal with the realities on the ground. What course should we be on? Presumably on a course home. As in, pull out now. Am I missing something? How are we less secure today? We are killing terrorists by the truck load in Iraq. Yes they are inflicting casualties, but that’s what happens in war. At least we are killing hundreds of terrorists. If we were not killing them there, those hundreds of terrorists would be free to roam the world trying to kill Americans elsewhere. Our enemy is radical Islamo-fascists. They hate the U.S. for being nothing more than the U.S. It does not matter if we abandon Israel to be gang raped by her Arab neighbors. It does not matter if we pull out of EVERY base outside of the U.S. It does not matter if we drop our pants and take one for the team. They.Hate.Us. They always have and always will. Freedom is anathema to them.

The war in Iraq has been tougher than anticipated or hoped for but at the very least we are killing terrorists. That in itself makes us safer. But more important than that, Iraq is a test. It is a test in which the eyes of the world, our friends and our enemies, are on us to see if we finish our task and see this thing to completion. If we leave to soon, we will be rightfully seen as weak. Just seeming weak was enough for Osama to bring down the Twin Towers.

In fairness to him, I do understand his point, sort of. I hope his main point is that Democrats need to have real ideas and that they should stand for something. That is fine, but standing for retreat is not a Democratic platform, it’s French.