When Principle Trumps Partisanship

John Fund notes that Charlie Wilson’s War is a story about what can happen our political leaders put partisan squabbling aside and focus on doing what is right simply because it is the right thing to do. While I haven’t seen the film myself, I can certainly agree with the moral of that story and would note that some of today’s political leaders could learn a thing or two from it.
Look at Iraq, for instance. Prior to invasion the nation was a human rights disaster. The nation was run by thugs ruled by thug-in-chief Saddam Hussein who lorded over torture, rigged elections, genocide and ruthless social oppression. Deposing Saddam and assisting the Iraqis in setting up a representative government of their own was the right thing to do. In the long run, it will not only make the middle east more stable (and thus less of a threat to America and the rest of the world) it will also spare untold millions a life of misery, oppression and murder.
If a certain political party in this country weren’t so interested in using the war as a political issue, we could all just focus on doing what is right in Iraq and the middle east. But instead, the Democrats want to try and win elections by forcing a failure in Iraq to embarrass their political enemies.
They are, put simply, opposing that which is right and just for no other reason than political gain.

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  • http://ewebsmith.com/ ews48

    It’s really hard to figure out how 650,000 dead, 2.3 million displaced, with the man chosen by the U.S. in charge, is not a human rights disaster, rigged elections, genocide, or ruthless social oppression let alone somehow better than what existed before. We do have openly state approved torture which you could argue is somehow superior to the secret torture that existed previously and U.S. authorized recipients are now reaping the money.

    The Iraq war ranks right up there as one of the worst human rights disasters in history.

    The Democrats do not want to force a failure in Iraq. If they did, it would be over by now. They have figured out how to reap the rewards as well and want to prolong the war while appearing to be against it.

    The really bad thing is that, since a population is ultimately responsible for its government, especially in the U.S. where a Constitution assigns ultimate authority to the Citizens, we are all complicit and have allowed our government to turn us into murdering, immoral thieves.

  • http://www.fred08.com/ Winghunter

    They have been defeated every time because they themselves have caved in every time. All they had to do is simply cut off the funding to “force failure” in Iraq. The only problem is that they know full well that if they did that, Bush would leave our troops in harms way and just let them run out of food, ammo, and everything else and die in mass numbers just for political gain.

    WHERE do outrageous mental midgets like this come from!?

    Lets all do our part in cleaning up our country; if you see a poli-sci or soc prof, break his jaw.

  • http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

    They have been defeated every time because they themselves have caved in every time.

    Pesky thing these “constituents“! Something about the whiny bastards wanting to get “reelected“! :)

  • http://www.neofascist.org/ Socialist

    There have been, what, 48 or more votes by the Dems in Congress to cut and run, but they’ve been defeated every time.

    They have been defeated every time because they themselves have caved in every time. All they had to do is simply cut off the funding to “force failure” in Iraq. The only problem is that they know full well that if they did that, Bush would leave our troops in harms way and just let them run out of food, ammo, and everything else and die in mass numbers just for political gain.

    Knowing that the “threat” from Iraq turned out to be false, the current rightwing rationale for the invasion of Iraq is “human rights” and “democracy” and “freedom”. If this is the criteria for invasion, then please someone tell me why we haven’t invaded Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Syria, Palestine, North Korea, Lebanon, Mexico and Cuba, just to name a few? Your rationale falls on its face the minute it is put into proper context.

  • http://ndgoon.blogspot.com/ goon

    ews48 said: The Democrats do not want to force a failure in Iraq. If they did, it would be over by now.

    The left doesn’t have the political muscle or the votes to end this war.

    Neiman said: Not one thing stated by EWS48 are, as far as I can determine, based on any estbalished objective facts. Rather, they are all highly partisan, emotionally based charges made by someone with a severely limited ability to deal in the truth if it runs counter to their prejudices. It is sad that people from any political persuasion are consciously willing to sacrifice the facts upon the time worn and discredited altar of extreme partisanship.

    Welcome to the democratic party, the party of doom and gloom who offers nothing in any way shape or form that is an improvement or an answer to any issues. All they want to do is sling mud.

    golfmann said: Do you have a CREDIBLE source for these numbers?

    Nope this is the Michael Moore, Moveon.org, Talking Points Memo, George Soros Crap, they don’t need links or facts just distortions of the truth.

  • dirl126

    Socialist: I find it much more likely that Democrats realize that we have come this far to quit than Bush would actually leave troops there to die. That would be an unprecedented national event of neglect.

    Proof makes a good point.

    It’s a great movie. It does a great job in staying clear from party lines, until the end. Which hints at democrats.

    iAMBS: 23 reasons?! cool. do you have a link or something of the sort? I’d love to see it.

  • http://www.icallbs.net/ iAMbs

    Knowing that the “threat” from Iraq turned out to be false, the current rightwing rationale for the invasion of Iraq is “human rights” and “democracy” and “freedom”.

    There were 23 reasons given for the use of force against Iraq which was approved by both houses of Congress, only 1 of which was the mistaken belief that Iraq was currently in possession of WMD’s. 3 of them were humanitarian in nature.

    Regardless of the initial reasons for invasion and how right or wrong they were, once the government was overthrown we had a responsibility to put the country back on its feet. To just say “oops” and leave would have been inhumane and irresponsible (and would have sullied the reputation of the US in the world at least as much as this badly-managed war has). And what is so wrong with trying to make something good come out of something bad? We can’t change the past, we can only try to make it worth it. IMHO we are doing that.

  • http://magyartruth.blogspot.com/ Chief RZ

    There are some who would equate squashing a bug with rape, real torture and murder. Those people are called communists. SocialDemocrats come close.
    On November 14, 1994, by Executive Order 12938, President William Jefferson Clinton declared a national emergency with respect to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States posed by the proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons “weapons of mass destruction” and the means of delivering such weapons. He also called for regime change in Iraq. The main difference between democrats and republicans is that one talks a lot about what they don’t do, are unwilling to do or can not do. The other tells the truth, follows through with their promises and actually does something about a problem. In this case, our present CINC had to follow up on Clinton’s failure to address numerous attacks on our soldiers abroad and at home. Remember 1993, the first attack on the WTC? Dereliction of Duty is a good book. Read it. The people elected our President in 2004. He campaigned on the war in Iraq among many other things. He was elected. A majority of the US citizens who voted affirmed congress’s vote to “do something” actually, use all means to enforce the 15-0 UN resolution.
    History for you. The draft passed by one vote a few years before we were attacked on December 7, 1941, thank God there were some profiles in courage back then. Just stay out of the way and we can win this war easily.

  • http://proof-proofpositive.blogspot.com/ proof_positive

    The Democrats do not want to force a failure in Iraq. If they did, it would be over by now

    Dude! It’s not for want of trying! There have been, what, 48 or more votes by the Dems in Congress to cut and run, but they’ve been defeated every time. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid head the Gang That Can’t Shoot Straight!

  • Neiman

    Not one thing stated by EWS48 are, as far as I can determine, based on any estbalished objective facts. Rather, they are all highly partisan, emotionally based charges made by someone with a severely limited ability to deal in the truth if it runs counter to their prejudices. It is sad that people from any political persuasion are consciously willing to sacrifice the facts upon the time worn and discredited altar of extreme partisanship.

    It is certainly appropriate to defend ones beliefs and to prefer one political ideology over another, but when we stop dealing in facts and give our emotions free reign, we only harm ourselves and our cause.

    We can argue with full vigor the wisdom of going into Iraq, our staying there after deposing Saddam, the ups and downs of fighting that war and even the idea of trying to establish a democratic government in an area that is surrounded by dictatorial Islamic States. These are all legitimate areas for rational debate. But, to do so at expense of loyalty to this nation and engage in a scorched earth policy of political carping against America just to further a narrow minded political agenda is not in the best interest of our future.

    We are in Iraq, after a tough slog from invasion to the current situation wherein it now appears victory is at hand over the terrorists and a near civil war, it would seem that any American even a socialist minded Leftist could find some cause to rejoice in our military success, with a lot of credit to Petraeus and a tiny bit, albeit begrudgingly to President Bush – our President.

  • http://northerngleaner.blogspot.com/ Gene

    I must admit I watched 3 hours on this yesterday on History Channel. With the real Charlie Wilson.

    Amazing stuff. Made me proud to be an American.

    I kept trying to pull away from the show, but couldn’t. I am going to see the movie.

    CIA, Dept of Education, Dept of Ag, OSHA and IRS, all candidates for Abolition.

  • graybeard

    Look at Iraq, for instance. Prior to invasion the nation was a human rights disaster.

    Spin, spin spin. The US invaded Iraq because it was pitched as a threat to the US.

    Period.

    Not because “it was the right thing to do” or any such bullcrap. No nation goes to war on that basis.

    You wrap up your nonsense with the inevitable dig at the democrats – what a surprise. As far as a party using it as a political issue, the whole notion of invading Iraq was a purely partisan move engineered by the Republicans in order to make it an issuse in the 2002 mid-terms.

    4500 kids dead and 25,000 maimed and injured in order to win Congress. That’s not partisan squabbling, it’s a disgrace to this nation and the principles upon which it was founded.

  • http://www.wethepeopleforum.com/forum/forums.asp golfmann

    It’s really hard to figure out how 650,000 dead, 2.3 million displaced

    Do you have a CREDIBLE source for these numbers?

  • http://www.fred08.com/ Winghunter

    ews48 just demonstrated a titanic intellect in a world of icebergs….Man Overboard!!

  • Marty

    I haven’t seen the movie, but knowing Tom Hank’s liberal leanings, I’m not expecting much.

    But the book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

  • http://www.icallbs.net/ iAMbs

    iAMBS: 23 reasons?! cool. do you have a link or something of the sort? I’d love to see it.

    http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_bills&docid=f:hj114enr.txt.pdf

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