Originally published on February 21, 2007: The Folly of Undermining America's Commander in Chief in Wartime
The Folly of Undermining America's Commander in Chief in Wartime
Ed Koch asks an excellent question: Will embarrassing the president make us safer?
The immediate implications of the endless partisan attacks on George W. Bush are obvious. It becomes harder for him to accomplish anything in the war on terror, either domestically or internationally, no matter how much it needs to be done. Keep in mind that America has only one chief executive and only one executive branch that can actually take action on behalf of the federal government. Congress can only pass laws; the judiciary can only apply such laws to individual cases that happen to arise. If our commander in chief cannot function, we cannot function as a nation, at least not in matters military.
But let us also consider where America and other decent, civilized nations of the world will be in January 2009, when America's next commander in chief steps up to the plate. Will that president have more, or less, ability to get things done as a result of the constant drumbeat of disparagemement that has been directed at President George W. Bush during his term in office?
For the left, George Bush can do nothing right. In this, they have willingly played into the hands of Al Qaeda and all other manner of worldwide terrorists and despots. Today, too many on the left are singing from the same songbook as Iran's mullahs and president Ahmadinejad, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, and other enemies of the U.S. and the West.
Do leftists imagine that, after the world has spent eight long years treating George Bush and America as its favorite whipping boy, President Bush's successor in office will receive a "pass"?
I guarantee you that America's next president, like every other American president in recent years, will be burned in effigy in various tyrannies and terrorist-dominated nations around the world -- regardless of what choices that president makes. The forces aligned against the U.S., whether out of a desire to see an Islamic caliphate or communist "paradise" take over the world, or simply out of petty envy and a desire to ascend to world dominance, will not make subtle distinctions between one American president and the next.
Thus, Americans and the West need to hang together. Politics once again need to stop at the water's edge. Divided, we will fall.
The left needs to give long and serious thought to the question "what is the greater evil in the world today?" What is the greater threat to your freedom and survival?
Ask the survivors who escaped from the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 before the towers collapsed. Ask the relatives of the thousands of men, women and children who died in the towers and on aircraft that were deliberately slammed into three buildings and a Pennsylvania field. While you're at it, ask the tens of thousands around the world who have been victims of Islamic terrorism in the last 30 years.
Consider the multiple terrorist attacks that occurred while Democrat Bill Clinton was President of the United States. Consider the Iranian hostage taking that occurred while Democrat Jimmy Carter was President of the United States. These Democratic presidents' supposed nuance, diplomatic skills, and "progressive" poltiics meant nothing to the terrorist thugs.
You will not find peace by destroying American's president. All you will do is to help bring about greater tragedies than America and other civilized nations have yet known.
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