XDA

In the great 1964 movie Dr. Strangelove, in the War Room, with the heads of our government discussing what to do about General Ripper's ordering his wing of B-52s to attack Russia, there is this exchange between Adlai Stevenson look alike President Merkin Muffley, played by Peter Sellers, and General Buck Turgidson, played by George C. Scott, just after the General proposes a co-ordinated, all out, sneak, first strike on the Soviet Union:

Mufley:"It is the avowed policy of our country never to strike first with nuclear weapons." Turgidson: "Well, Mr. President, I would say that General Ripper has already invalidated that policy!"

On Wednesday, President Bush said these things in front of the Israeli Knesset:

There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain their words away. This is natural. But it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.

Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

Some people suggest that if the United States would just break ties with Israel, all our problems in the Middle East would go away. This is a tired argument that buys into the propaganda of our enemies, and America rejects it utterly. Israel's population may be just over 7 million. But when you confront terror and evil, you are 307 million strong, because America stands with you.

America stands with you in breaking up terrorist networks and denying the extremists sanctuary. And America stands with you in firmly opposing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. Permitting the world's leading sponsor of terror to possess the world's deadliest weapon would be an unforgivable betrayal of future generations. For the sake of peace, the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

Here is what Rahm Emanuel (D-IL), said during the kerfuffle of faux outrage by Obama over these perfectly true and sensible words of our President, which, by the way, were not aimed at Obama, even though his consciousness of guilt makes him confess they do indeed apply to him..

The tradition has always been that when a U.S. president is overseas, partisan politics stops at the water’s edge.

Here is a partial list of the Democrats who have already invalidated that "water's edge" tradition.

• Ex President Jimmy Carter ( in Birmingham, England said: "...the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and unjust. And I think the premises on which it was launched were false.")

• Ex-Vice President Al Gore (said in Britain that the Bush Administration was a "renegade band of right-wing extremists.")

• Senator John Kerry (from an elite conclave in Davros, Switzerland, called America an "international pariah.")

• Rep. 'Baghdad' Jim McDermott (in Iraq, on a trip funded by Saddam Husein, said President Bush was willing ''to mislead the American people'' about whether the war was needed...)

• Senator Jay Rockefeller (said he traveled in 2002 to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Syria and told the leaders there that "George Bush had already made up his mind to go to war against Iraq")

But perhaps I have it wrong, it's only the President who can't say true things which could apply to a number of Democrats while overseas, while the Democrats, outside America, can say any vile thing they want about our President. It's another one-way rule.

Labels: American Politics