Noemi Emory Struts, Redux
Here’s an article by Noemi Emory of the Weekly Standard:
Eagerly anticipating the defeat in Iraq to which they are so much attached, some on the left have also been preparing for another contingency: the assault that they think they see coming, a drive to pin the whole wretched failure on them.
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If they had had their way, Iraq would still be the quagmire they are so fond of invoking, and the United States–or George W. Bush, which may be the more relevant factor–would have incurred a definitive and, at least in his case, legacy-blasting defeat. It is unfair of course to call this a stab in the back, as the Democrats have been engagingly open about their intentions. In the course of the past year, they have gone from attacking a plan that had not been effective to attacking one that hadn’t been tried yet, to attacking one that exceeded all expectations, while in the process ignoring reality, slandering a commanding general, and denying American forces in battle due credit for what they had done.
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When our tale opens, it is the last month of 2006…
Wait a second. Is that when the tale opens? And didn’t Noemi Emory write this article already? Ah yes, here it is:
GIDDY WITH FAILURE, Democrats are breaking new ground in political strategy. Deep in a hole, they are digging still deeper. They have found a new method of dealing with setbacks: They find out what caused them, and do it again.
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Then came the war and the worst of all happened: Democrats were drowned in a flood of good news. There were no wider wars, no more terrorist attacks, no strikes at Israel, no burning oil fields, no destructive Arab-street uprisings, no street-to-street fighting, and mercifully, very few deaths. After arguing that Iraq was a diversion from the war on terror, major al Qaeda figures were captured. After dismissing ties between Saddam and al Qaeda, links are now being uncovered. Even the Democrats’ best worst hope–the looted museum–turned out to be useless. It was an inside job, it was unpreventable, and most of the missing artifacts have been found.
Needless to say, its been a while. The good news has given way to terrorist attacks, street-to-street fighting, and a lot of deaths. Mostly of Iraqis so maybe that doesn’t matter all that much.
Major al Qaeda figures were captured… clearly, Emory hasn’t figured out the difference between al Qaeda and al Qaeda Iraq. Its like many Middle Easterners who haven’t figured out the difference between an Israeli and a Jew, or between an American and a Canadian.
But enough of Emory for a moment. I’m going to be honest here. I hope there’s peace and quiet in Iraq. I hope it comes today. It would be nice to open up a newspaper a month from today and read that for 30 days, there have been no shootings or bombings against civilians or US or Iraqi forces in Iraq. I hate hearing about people dying or fleeing their homes, and only coming back because the Syrians threw them out or they ran out of money even after prostituting their daughters in Jordan. I hate US tax dollars wasted. I want Iraq to be like Germany a month after VE day, or Japan a month after VJ day: quiet and rebuilding. I really don’t care if that makes Bush look good. (I honestly doubt that would be enough at this point, but if it does, so what – how does eating crow compare to the degree of death and suffering we see regularly in Iraq?) And I’d happily put up with the giddy strutting by the likes of Noemi Emory if we got that.
But what are the Noemi Emorys strutting around for? Even if, by some miracle, there were peace and quiet tomorrow – what was it all for? WMDs? There were none. Ties with al Qaeda? Please. To bring democracy to the Arab world and get rid of a source of instability? We still don’t know whether democracy will happen, or whether Iraq will be a friend in the region. But even if it comes to pass, wouldn’t both of these goals have been accomplished more easily and effectively by toppling the Saudi dictatorship? Was what was accomplished, whatever it is that was accomplished, really worth the cost in blood and treasure to the Noemi Emorys of this world?