George McGovern dusts himself off to start the Left's campaign to lose the former "good war" in Afghanistan:
As you settle into the Oval Office, Mr. President, may I offer a suggestion? Please do not try to put Afghanistan aright with the U.S. military. To send our troops out of Iraq and into Afghanistan would be a near-perfect example of going from the frying pan into the fire. There is reason to believe some of our top military commanders privately share this view. And so does a broad and growing swath of your party and your supporters.
My biggest mistake was thinking that the Left would need to find a "real" fight elsewhere that they could argue Afghanistan distracts us from addressing. But with the Left holding Congress and the White House, I guess they see no need for such refinements. Just turning and running as fast as their stubby little legs can churn will do just fine now:
So let me suggest a truly audacious hope for your administration: How about a five-year time-out on war -- unless, of course, there is a genuine threat to the nation?
During that interval, we could work with the U.N. World Food Program, plus the overseas arms of the churches, synagogues, mosques and other volunteer agencies to provide a nutritious lunch every day for every school-age child in Afghanistan and other poor countries.
A time out on war, he says. And provide lunch to Afghan school kids instead.
I assume McGovern means just lunch for boys, since the Taliban thugs kill to shut down schools that teach girls. God doesn't want that, as far as the jihadis are concerned. And I'm sure that the jihadis won't mind Christians and Jews participating with Moslems in this project on Moslem soil. Nor will moderate Moslems willing to work with Christians and Jews need fear jihadi wrath for that touching display of bumper sticker coexistence that appeals to proper-minded liberals everywhere.
And remember, if we've declared a "time out," our troops can't very well protect the little girls from the lunatic jihadis. Acid in the face, beheadings, and bombs will dampen the thrill of getting a nice culturally sensitive lunch each day.
My God, how can I even begin to address such lunacy?
McGovern served bravely in World War II. But he's more than made up for that heroism in his decades of undermining American national security since then and pimping for our enemies.
The man is clearly an idiot. And he expresses the impulses of many of President Obama's supporters who will resist his efforts to win the "good war" gone "bad."
The Right will be with Obama to win the war in Afghanistan, even when we have doubts about strategy. The Left will be out there banging their drums and hauling out the giant puppets to lose a "bad war."
UPDATE: Will these girls get an education under McGovern's proposal?
Teenage girls in blue and green burqas pour into the schoolyard, where they pull off their coverings, stuff them in their book bags and head to class. It almost seems as if the acid attacks never happened.
But though classes have resumed, the students, their parents and the school's principal remain on edge two months later. The principal says better security promised by the government hasn't come. Some girls are too afraid to tell reporters their names or let their pictures be taken.
In November, three teams of men on motorbikes sprayed acid from squirt guns and water bottles onto 15 schoolgirls and teachers as they walked to the Mirwais Mena girls school in Kandahar, the southern city that is the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban.
One girl's face was so badly burned that she was flown to India for treatment. Four others are still being treated at hospitals in Afghanistan's capital, Kabul.
The attackers' apparently hoped to scare girls from going to school. The Taliban banned girls from attending school during its 1996-2001 rule and insurgents in the south have repeatedly attacked schools in recent years as part of the insurgency against the government.
So we know what "peace" with the Afghan Taliban jihadis would look like. We've seen it already.
The Left likes to claim the mantle of concern and caring. They'd have to think that to sleep at night with the results of their policies so very clear. They'd have better luck in their reasoning abilities if they'd just understand that we are the good guys and our jihadi enemies are the bad guys.
