September 24, 2003

Jonah on Clark/Iraq

Jonah Goldberg is on target in his syndicated column on Wesley Clark with this observation:

Please, don't talk to me about the issues.

Oh, not you. And maybe not you, either. But you - that's right, you: the average Democratic voter who, having barely or never heard of Wesley Clark, has decided he's your man.

And you the Democratic activist who's been denouncing President Bush as a war monger for "fighting a war of choice" that was "not in the national interest" and was without U.N. approval but who has no problem flocking to a general in charge of the consummate war of choice, which lacked U.N. backing and could never, ever, be seen as an effort to deal with an "imminent" threat - or any other kind of threat.

Or don't you remember Kosovo? That's the place where American troops are still holed up, four years later, risking their lives for the betterment of another people. If you think that's good - like I do - you might want to explain why it's not good for us to be in Iraq for even one year.

Kosovo is also the place that has been entrusted to the U.N. for administration, "nation-building" if you will, and four years later is not yet sovereign or close to self-governing. When someone performs miserably at a given job, you don't give them more similar jobs to do. To give this anti-democratic body any role whatsoever in the political reconstruction of Iraq would be unthinkable. To let the people who gladly did business with Saddam, and would have left him in power get anywhere near the country that has yet to rid itself of elements loyal to him, would be insane.

But back to Goldberg's point about the Democratic hypocrisy that is a natural byproduct of putting their loathing of Bush over any principle:

Democrats are against nation-building in Iraq, because Bush is for it there. They're in favor of it in Afghanistan, because they think Bush is against it there. They're for multilateralism and the U.N. in Iraq because that's where Bush is seen as "unilateral," but at the same time they're aghast that Bush won't deal unilaterally with North Korea, ridiculing his insistence that regional partners and the U.N. be in on the talks. This is not serious foreign policy.

Posted by dan at September 24, 2003 12:08 PM