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Just as the Amnesty Bill was dubbed a “Grand Bargain,” we have another example of what happens when you compromise to reach a consensus–you agree on the lowest common denominator. With the immigration issue, it was open borders, stomping on the Rule of Law and rewarding 20 million illegal squatters with amnesty.

Now, the issue is Iraq. And what will a depraved “Grand Bargain” get us this time? Not an agreement to finally face down the enemy. Not even an agreement simply to dispatch singular enemy leadership like Muqtada al-Sadr. Nope, true to form, the Iraq Grand Bargain is all about the legacy of the Left: surrender and retreat. This time as facilitated by the biggest frightened “Please Like Me” liberal of them all–George W. Bush.

Moment of Truth for the President

The New York Times leads today with David Sanger’s story, “In White House, Debate Is Rising On Iraq Pullback; Political Considerations; Not Waiting For Sept. 15, Aides Seek to Forestall G.O.P. Defections.” The piece is tendentious, as one would expect–but THE WEEKLY STANDARD has confirmed that there are real discussions going on at the White House, with advocates of what is being called “The Grand Bargain” pushing hard for the president to move soon to announce plans to pull back in Iraq. So this week will not only be a week of (mostly silly) debate on the Hill; it will also be an important moment of truth for the president, who will have to decide whether to give Gen. Petraeus and the soldiers a chance, or to accept the counsel of some of his advisers and begin to throw in the towel on Iraq.

Let me be clear: The president ordered the “surge,” which only recently came to full strength and whose major operation has been going on for less than a month. If he were not to give it a chance to work, he would properly be viewed as a feckless, irresolute president, incapable of seeing his own strategy through a couple of months of controversy before abandoning it. He will have asked our soldiers to go on the offensive, assuming greater risk of casualties–and then, even though the offensive is working better than expected, will have pulled the plug on their efforts.

Indeed, the White House is living in a fool’s paradise if they imagine that “compromising” now and in this way buys them anything…

Uh, Newsflash for Bill Kristol: The “surge” will only work if our troops actually had orders to do something other than be Crossing Guards, Body-Finders, and Dodgers of Car Bombs. Kristol’s article is the sort of tripe you get from the “he’s my president, right or wrong” crowd, incapable, or unwilling, to admit the truth and present it to you accordingly.

And when it comes to General Patraeus–he’s now using Vietnam War analogies when referring to what to expect in Iraq. A “Mini-Tet Offensive” is what he said would could expect in the next few weeks. That’s terrific–let’s use the name for an event which signaled the final and irreversible rejection by the American people of the Vietnam War. All because Walter Cronkite, despite our overwhelming win of that battle, wanted the American people to believe otherwise.

Great job, Patraeus. Absolute, stunning genius at giving leftists exactly what they want–a return to the days when self-loathing cowards in media lied about our troops and our work in that God-forsaken country. And now you bring that lie right into the middle of what our troops are doing today. There’s a reason why Bush chose Patraeus folks, just like why he chose Chertoff for Homeland Security–because they will passionately implement the president’s Mister Rogers-like foreign and domestic policy.

The problem which Kristol doesn’t seem to grasp, is that in order for the “surge” to work, there has to be a mission for the troops in the surge. There isn’t one. And no, in a war theatre being a massive Neighborhood Watch program doesn’t effing count.

So, the other option is Neo-Grand Bargain. Just as with amnesty, we are being told there is do nothing, or do a very bad thing. There are no alternatives, no other way to handle the problem. Either it’s amnesty, or do nothing. With Iraq, it’s retreat and surrender, or continue to do nothing.

These men, and the few women, sit there in Washington, (sometimes in their fashionable hijabs), deciding how to skate their way past the enemy, more worried about offending and upsetting and causing general discomfort, should be forced to sit in a 3-D, holographic re-enactment of being on the 90th of the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th. Let them see and feel and hear what it was like to jump out the 90th floor window, or to have the building crash down in top of you.

Through the miracle of technology, let Condi Rice feel what it’s like to be blown up by an Iranian-supplied RPG. I wonder if she would then be so keen on meeting them for tea. Well, her various body parts that could be gathered up for the occasion.

All of the people Washington, every single one of them, should disgust you. And that includes the politicians who supposedly understand the importance of this war. Funny, I don’t hear them very often anymore, do you?

So, Bill Kristol, a Moment of Truth for the President> Indeed, it has been. A moment of truth for all of us, the truth of the president already living in that Fool’s Paradise, behaving more like a dry drunk desperate for approval than the Commander in Chief whose job it is to protect this nation.

May Bush and Rice and James Baker and every other appeaser be haunted for the rest of their lives by their abandonment of this nation in the name of Multiculturalism, Political Correctness and Appeasement.