October 22, 2004

Libs Running Out of Arguments; Fact-Free Attacks Reused; Libs Hope No One Notices

From a great new article by Max Boot:

Just recall what antiwar advocates said:

Sen. John Kerry: “I do not believe our nation is prepared for war. If we do go to war, for years people will ask why Congress gave in. They will ask why there was such a rush to so much death and destruction when it did not have to happen.”

Columnist Robert Novak: “It is probable that after Bush orders the first shot fired, anything that looks American throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe could come into the cross hairs of a rifle sight or be blown up by a car bomb.”

Former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski: “The United States is likely to become estranged from many of its European allies.”

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy: “It’ll be brutal and ugly. The 45,000 body bags the Pentagon has sent to the region are all the evidence we need of the high price in lives and blood that we will have to [bear].”

Former President Jimmy Carter: “The devastating consequences will be [felt] for decades to come, in economic and political destabilization of the Middle East region.”

Many critics of the current conflict had no special insights into the dangers U.S. troops would face. They’ve been predicting disaster in virtually identical terms every time the United States has deployed forces anywhere since Vietnam.

Actually there’s a perfectly good reason why President George H.W. Bush didn’t listen to these Cassandras: They were wrong. You see, all these gloomy predictions weren’t made prior to the war of 2003. They were made before the war of 1991.

...They serve as a timely reminder that many critics of the current conflict had no special insights into the dangers U.S. troops would face. They’ve been predicting disaster in virtually identical terms every time the United States has deployed forces anywhere since Vietnam. One could dredge up equally apocalyptic predictions about U.S. interventions in Somalia, Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo, Afghanistan: All were supposed to be the “next Vietnam.”

The president’s opponents, with perfect hindsight, now want him to apologize for his failure to foresee everything that would go wrong in Iraq. There is no question he made plenty of mistakes, some of them foreseeable. But what about the naysayers? When will they apologize for everything they’ve gotten wrong over the years?

Bingo.

This is the whole Liberal playbook: 1) Say something absurd that has no basis in fact and slams Republicans. 2) Repeat until rank and file Dems think you believe it. 3) Rank and file Dems then figure since their leaders believe it, it must be true.

This has the benefit of being easier than having to study facts and come up with something that actually makes a contribution and helps to make us stronger and safer. But it’s not a strategy that can work forever. Eventually people start to catch on to the mindless reuse of fact-free attacks that have been repeatedly disproved every single time they’ve been used.