Why Listen When You Know It All?

Harry Reid admits that he doesn’t care what Gen. Petraeus has to say about the situation in Iraq:

It’s become quite clear that Senator Reid has sold himself out to the anti-war side and is soliciting a US defeat in Iraq. He doesn’t care what Gen. Petraeus has to say because this issue isn’t about what happens in Iraq to the Democrats — it’s an expressly political calculation. The New York Post puts it bluntly:

To be sure, Reid won’t risk calling for an immediate pullout. He cautioned his party’s bug-out-now wing to be patient, despite “the restlessness” of those who “voted for change in November [and] anticipated dramatic and immediate results in January.”

The problem, said Reid, is that “George W. Bush is still the commander-in-chief—and this is his war.”

And there’s the real problem: From the start, Reid and the Democrats have seen the war in Iraq as a partisan opportunity.

They refuse to present a unified front to the rest of the world—especially to America’s enemies—because, in their pinched view, to do so would be to weaken their own prospects for retaking the White House in 2008.

The abject cynicism of it all is simply appalling. Reid and the rest of the surrender caucus don’t want to contemplate what happens once we bug out of Iraq, it’s all about playing politics.

The fundamental difference between Republicans and Democrats on this war is that Republicans want to fight the war and Democrats want to fight the President. Just look at how this is being called “Bush’s war” despite the fact that the President had the support of most of the Democratic Party in taking this nation into Iraq. Now that the going has gotten tough, the Democrats are weaseling their way out of their own position.

The political backlash from this is going to hurt the Democrats for a very long time. It’s one thing to criticize the conduct of this war. It’s another thing to become an open cheerleader for defeat. The Democrats think that they have a mandate to lead this nation into surrender and leave Iraq in a state of anarchy. What would be gained? Democratic power. What would be lost? Any hope of stability in the Middle East and each and every sacrifice made by our troops in Iraq. The calculus is clear, and the Democrats have chosen to put their own political fortunes above that of their country.