The Hill reports on the growing number of Congressional Democrats who are willing to say out loud that they want to abandon Afghanistan to the terrorists:

When they won control of Congress in November, Democrats pressed their case to withdraw troops from Iraq and refocus on Afghanistan, but some are growing impatient with U.S. operations in Afghanistan as well.

A few congressional Democrats go so far as suggesting that the Pentagon should pull out of Afghanistan now, while others say that troop withdrawal will be addressed after the military is out of Iraq.

Afghanistan has long been an uncomfortable issue for the Democrats, because the arguments for staying there are not materially different from the arguments for staying in Iraq:

Yet making the argument that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq and stay in Afghanistan can be politically challenging. While Democrats regularly note that the war in Iraq has now gone on longer than World War II, the U.S. has been in Afghanistan longer than it has been in Iraq. And arguments that Iraqis need to take control of their own country can be applied to Afghanistan as well.

Democrats are adamant that they don’t want a terrorist training ground in Afghanistan, though al Qaeda and other factions are battling the U.S. in Iraq.

Of course, an al Qaeda training ground in Iraq would be even worse than one in Afghanistan, given Iraq's oil resources and central location.

There is no doubt that at the first opportunity, the antiwar organizations and the nutroots will start agitating for abandonment of Afghanistan:

Code Pink Women for Peace spokeswoman Dana Balicki said that her organization would like to see soldiers withdraw from Afghanistan.

“The combat forces should be replaced by international peacekeeping forces,” she said. “We should push for peace talks in the area with all groups that have power.”

MoveOn.org did not respond to repeated attempts for comment on the issue.

Meanwhile, several anti-war members, including Reps. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), stress that any troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is inextricably linked to the military’s first leaving Iraq.

The truth is that most Democrats have no intention of using military force to promote U.S. security under any circumstances. They prefer to live in a fantasy world in which "diplomatic initiatives" and "multi-national peacekeeping forces" can keep us safe.

Meanwhile, Strategy Page headlines: "Taliban Admits Defeat":

The Taliban has admitted defeat, in their own unique way. In recent media interviews, Taliban spokesmen announced a shift in emphasis to suicide bombings. The Taliban also admitted that the Americans had infiltrated their high command, which led to the death or capture of several senior Taliban officials, and the capture of many lower ranking ones as well. There have also been some prominent defections recently, which the Taliban spokesmen did not want to talk about.

So the Democrats may be just in time to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

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Posted by John at 08:06 AM  |    |