What strikes me most about the Iraq Surrender Group's report and the discussion following its release is how few people in positions of power are willing to stand up for victory.  A war isn't something you can decide to just stop doing because you're tired of it; particularly this one.  We're in a war people.  As MacArthur said, "there's no substitute for victory." 

Our nation has given its word that we will stand by Iraq until it can sustain itself as a free nation.  Even more than individuals, nations cannot afford not to keep their word.  The consequences are too severe.  In 1975 the United States did not keep its word to the government of South Vietnam, and thanks to the Democrat controlled congress of the day, stopped all military aid to South Vietnam, which promptly fell to the invading North Vietnamese Army.  In the following five years, Cuba sent troops to Angola, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and a bunch of "students" in Iran took over an American embassy and held Americans hostage in it for over a year.  These things happened because after a humiliating defeat in Vietnam, one of our own making, the question "what will America do?" became less important to Communist governments and Muslim radicals, who believed, correctly, that America would do nothing.

If we abandon Iraq to the tender mercies of the likes of Al Qaeda and Iran, what country will take American assurances of support seriously?

No, as I said, we are in a war, and the only thing to do is win it.  Whatever it takes.  Why people like Moqtada Al-Sadr are still walking around is beyond me.  Why Iran and Syria are allowed to funnel weapons and foreign fighters into Iraq to kill American military personnel without paying a very high price is also beyond me.  Meanwhile, we dawdle and debate whether to enlist the help of Iran and Syria in our own humiliation.

Ever since those crazy radical students took over our embassy in Tehran, we have tolerated Islamic terrorism.  It's long past time we stopped tolerating it and started fighting it with everything we have.  Whatever it takes.

Folks,

You need to see this, if you can stomach it.  If you can, follow the link below to Atlas Shrugs and see what's going on in Indonesia.  I cannot warn you strongly enough, the pictures posted there are gruesome.  If you don't think you can stand it, don't go there.  The pictures show what happens to Christians and people who leave the Muslim faith in the world's most populous Muslim country.  Religion of Peace My A&&. 

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2006/11/islamic_jihad_i.html

Meanwhile, here in Los Angeles, the authorities are getting themselves worked up over a pastor at the First Baptist Church of Quartz Hill, in the Antelope Valley area.  It seems this pastor had the nerve to distribute a pamphlet stating (correctly) that Muslims blew up the World Trade Center in the name of Allah.  According to the local news (link below), there will be an investigation to see if this pastor committed a hate crime by exercising his First Amendment right of freedom of speech!!!  Here's the link, judge for yourself.

http://www.myfoxla.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=1532443&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.1.1

So let's review.  According to the Thought Police, it's a crime to criticize Islam, but not a crime to behead people who leave Islam for something better, like Christianity.  This, friends, is what we're up against.

It didn’t take them very long, now did it? They haven’t even taken control of Congress yet, and already the Democrats are plotting our retreat, oops, I mean redeployment, from Iraq.

I see this as very simple. If the Democrats get what they want, and we abandon Iraq to chaos and civil war, no country will ever again take seriously a commitment made by any President of the United States.

And countries we’ve already made commitments to will reevaluate their strategic positions and make policy adjustments we won’t like Taiwan? South Korea? These countries will watch us very closely, and if we bail out on Iraq, they will run to make whatever deal they can for themselves with their respective mortal enemies, China and North Korea. Israel? No deal possible there, so I’d guess desperate preemptive strikes against their mortal enemies. And what about that forgotten little piece of land saved by Bill Clinton, Kosovo? Watch as they become the headquarters of Al Qaeda in Europe.

Our enemies have been saying that the U.S. is a paper tiger. Sure, we have the best military in the world, there can be no doubt, but we lack the will to use it for as long as it may take to secure victory. It’s not that the troops can’t do the job, it’s the politicians, and, sad to say, many of us, who don’t seem to have the stomach for doing whatever it takes to achieve our objectives.

We are at war with people who want to kill you, your family, and everyone you ever met. We may spend the next 20 years at war with these people. If we flinch, as we did last week in electing a party that everyone knew wants us to retreat, our enemies see it as a sign of our weakness, as indeed they did, as published news reports carried the comments of Ahmadinejad, Al Qaeda and Chavez crowing about Bush’s defeat.

In this war, there is no substitute for victory. In Iraq, victory means a stable, independent country that is neither a client state of Iran nor a haven for terrorist organizations like Afghanistan used to be or Syria is today. Iraq today is a violent country, but one where that vision is being achieved, with help from us.

It is certainly true that innocent lives are being lost as Iraqis kill Iraqis. While that is a human tragedy, a car bomb in a crowded marketplace is not a civil war. However, if the US abandons Iraq, the death squads will have free rein to do anything they want, without fear of consequences. Before long, Iraq’s neighbors, Iran and Turkey will be only too happy to step in to “stabilize” a chaotic situation, all the while carving up the country into their own spheres of influence, the Shiite south for Iran, and the Kurdish north for the Turks, leaving the center to become Al Qaeda’s new base of operations, the rest of the vital Middle East in chaos and American foreign policy in shambles.

These are the stakes in Iraq, and these are the reasons we must see it through to victory.

The election is over. Where do Republicans go from here?

To answer that question, we must first know why the elections turned out as they did. Why did the Republicans lose their majority in both houses of Congress, and what does it mean?

The Republicans lost because, while vast numbers of the party’s base voters by and large showed up and voted for Republican candidates, independents voted more for Democrats than for Republicans. Although the base did show up and vote, many of them were angry at their senator or representative due to a perception that they had strayed from the party’s roots on a variety of issues such as out of control spending or illegal immigration. Meanwhile, the independents, those least, if at all, committed to maintaining a Republican majority in Congress, were by and large voting against Republican candidates due to their anger over the war in Iraq.

In many cases, too, Republican office holders were simply defeated because of local issues. Some simply ran weak campaigns, like Sen. George Allen of Virgina. Others were touched by scandal, such as Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana, who was involved in the Abramoff scandal.

In terms of turnout, it’s also important to keep in mind that this was a midterm election. Millions of voters who typically vote in a presidential election do not bother to vote during a midterm election. While the GOP made a lot of noise about its Get Out The Vote (GOTV) operation, obviously, as good as it is, it wasn’t enough by itself to ensure victory.

It’s also important to realize that many of the Democrats who won did not win by loudly and proudly standing up as liberals. Instead, many of them campaigned to the right of their Republican opponents, just as Bill Clinton did to George H.W. Bush in 1992. We will soon see if today’s Democratic members of Congress take their campaign promises as seriously as Clinton did. Remember that middle class tax cut he enacted? Oh wait.

One final point: This was a midterm election in the 6^th year of a presidential term. By that standard, the loss of seats by the President’s party is lower than those of 1938, 1958 and 1966.

All of this is to say that, while the party is by no means doomed to spend another 40 years in the political wilderness, neither can Republicans assume that they will be back on top in two years either. Business as usual won’t cut it anymore.

The Republican Party is going to have to rediscover its roots as the party of limited government, lower taxes, less spending, economic growth, a strong national defense and a commitment to do whatever it takes not just to have an exit strategy, but to actually win, in Iraq and in the Global War on Terror.

The Republicans in the House of Representatives will soon gather to choose their new leaders. They will have a choice between leaders of the Old Guard, such as current Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, or new faces, people not connected with Jack Abramoff, Mark Foley, or runaway federal spending, such as John Shadegg of Arizona or Mike Pence of Indiana, both of whom, for instance voted against the prescription drug entitlement that it is now obvious did nothing for the Republican Party. We will see whether the Republicans in Congress intend to practice business as usual or truly see the need to do something different by who gets elected.