January 08, 2004

The Left Falls Into the Trap Set by the Terrorists.

(via LGF). Daniel Pipes has a great new article up: Democrats Unlearn 9/11.

For about a year, Republicans and Democrats agreed on the need vigorously to prosecute the war on terror.

No longer. Nearly all the Democratic presidential contenders as well as other heavyweight Democrats have spoken out against the war on terror, preferring it to be a police action against terror. [Daniel presents quotes from top Democrats here]...

Because evidence against Iran would not have passed muster in a court of law, for example, the destruction of the U.S. embassy in Beirut in April 1983, killing 63, went unavenged. The U.S. response in 1998 to two embassy bombings in East Africa, killing 224, was to track down the perpetrators, haul them before a court in New York, win convictions, and put them away. There was no effort to dismantle the command and control structure, the financial institutions, the cultural milieu, or the political ideology that had bred the violence.

Terrorism exists solely as an alternative to war by nations who are not powerful enough to wage war against us directly.

Nations supporting terrorism depend on us to believe that they are not responsible for the actions of the terrorists they support.

Nations supporting terrorism depend on us to give those terrorists the full protection of our criminal justice system, including the high standards of proof required, thereby letting the vast majority of terrorists go free.

When the Democrats oppose the use of armed force to protect us; when they insist on treating terrorism as no more than a criminal action; when they turn a blind eye to the danger of the United States being nuked by terrorists—then the Democrats fall right into the trap set by the terrorists. That puts us in even greater danger.