Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory may be a cliché; however, with the information discovered in the hideout in which Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed last week, how else can we describe the Democrats' pressing for President Bush to set a firm deadline for troop withdrawal from Iraq?

An English language translation of a document found in Zarqawi's not-so-safe house reveals the desperate situation in which the terrorists in Iraq find themselves.

Note that in this document, the word resistance is referring to what the press calls insurgents and what I call terrorists, and the word occupation is referring to the continued U.S. presence in Iraq.

According to the document, in the words of the terrorists themselves, "here in Iraq, time is now beginning to be of service to the American forces and harmful to the resistance…"

The document states that continued U.S. presence in Iraq has, among other things, allowed the American forces to "form the forces of the (Iraqi) National Guard" and to "enable them to undertake military operations against the resistance," to undertake "massive arrest operations… causing the resistance to lose many of its elements," to create "a big division among the ranks of the resistance and jeopardizing its attack operations," and to "increase in the number of countries and elements supporting the occupation."

Contrast that to these two statements, representative of many Democrats' current position on the war.

"I believe we've done everything we can do. I believe we have become the enemy."
    -Congressman John Murtha, D-PA

"Our overwhelming military presence and our open-ended military commitment have fueled the insurgency and made America a crutch for the Iraqi government."
    -Senator Ted Kennedy, D-MA

In light of the terrorists' own assessment of the effect U.S. presence is having in Iraq, do Murtha and Kennedy seem to have an accurate view of current situation in Iraq?

The Zarqawi document outlines the terrorists' plan "to use the media for spreading an effective and creative image of the resistance," and "to create division and strife between American and other countries and among the elements disagreeing with it."

It sounds like these people understand what many of us have been saying for a long time: that they can use our own liberal media and our own liberal politicians for their propaganda purposes.

Unfortunately, there is no shortage of statements the terrorists can use "to create division and strife." Here are just a couple examples:

"The war in Iraq has been a mistake. I say, a grotesque mistake,"
    -Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, D-CA

"And as in Vietnam, we have stayed and fought and died even though it is time for us to go. It was right to dissent from a war in 1971 that was wrong and could not be won. And now, in 2006, it is both a right and an obligation for Americans to stand up to a president who is wrong today.''
    -Senator John Kerry, D-MA

The Zarqawi document refers to the terrorists' "current bleak situation" and discusses ways "to get out of this crisis."

From the point of view of the terrorists, the United States is clearly winning in Iraq. However, according to American democrats, we don't have a chance.

"Our postwar mission as presently defined cannot succeed."
    -Congresswoman Jane Harman, D-CA

The "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong."
    -Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean

If the American people could see the progress in Iraq through the eyes of the enemy, optimism in our country would abound. Unfortunately, we have to view the situation through the lens of the party of obstruction and through their mouthpieces in the media.

The terrorists can't beat the United States militarily. They can only defeat us by turning us against ourselves.