Absurd Liberal Debate Endangers America

In the days immediately following 9-11, the primary concern among American liberals was not how to prevent subsequent attacks, but how to avoid becoming the objects of any recriminations. With the corruption and malfeasance of the Clinton years still fresh in the minds of Americans, few doubted the link between Clinton Administration ineptitude and the opening it presented to America's enemies. Liberal sensitivity on the topic was extreme.

It was for this reason that when Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson postulated of the likelihood that disaster had befallen this nation since it had turned its back on God (read: embraced liberalism), the media immediately became hysterical, castigating both men for daring to engage in such a discussion.

While the substance of the specific connection proffered by Falwell and Robertson might not be provable among unbelievers, the events of the past week give cause to reconsider their basic premise. A country that is weak and chaotic within will be susceptible to enemies from without. And the absurdities of America's present discourse indicate that the mindless confusion of the political left and its continuing decisions to put political interest above the well being of the country have permeated all levels of the government.

Consequently, America's defenses are disintegrating and the probability of a strike from some evil adversary increases by the day. In light of the vehement post 9-11 liberal denials, and the unconscionable willingness of individuals such as Sandy Berger to erase crucial evidence in order to escape culpability, a clarion call sounded before the next terrorist incident might be more effective than finger pointing after the fact. Sadly, the twisted priorities among liberals necessitate such a course.

The left is currently outraged over an incident involving Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but not the fact that she has been caught flagrantly lying about her knowledge and tacit approval of the "waterboarding" of terrorists at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Rather, they are incensed that she was the butt of a bad joke made by CBS sportscaster David Feharty, who sought to highlight her treacherous undermining of the United States military.

Of course the Feharty incident required immediate action, and resulted in liberal calls for an apology, along with the customary demands for his removal from the airwaves. A bad joke, if told by somebody on the right and aimed at a prominent liberal Democrat, is certainly a matter of national importance necessitating instant contrition, penitence and blood atonement.

Meanwhile, the real issue of national consequence involving Nancy Pelosi, on the rare occasions when it is even mentioned, is handled with extreme delicacy by Democrat mouthpieces and their minions on the nightly news. Yet the significance of the affair, and more specifically the proof it represents of Pelosi's effort to rewrite the record of past events for the specific purpose of gaining political advantage, is absolutely defining among those who care about national security and the ability to wage the still very real war on terror.

Pelosi misrepresented the facts, denying any knowledge of the intense interrogation of terrorist prisoners, thereby assuming the moral "high ground" on the issue. Her professed indignation, phony as is ever the case among liberals, was only intended to rally the liberal anti-war base among the electorate. In the process she undermined the mission of America's military and intelligence gathering apparatus, while boosting the morale of Islamists throughout the world who regard all of America, including Pelosi and the people of her district, as their mortal enemies.

Pelosi is tap dancing now, having been caught in blatant fraud. Yet neither she nor those who joined in her duplicitous charade are receiving the universal condemnation they deserve. Ultimately, this lack of denunciation speaks volumes.

By their silence, all who refuse to decry her devious behavior identify themselves as collaborators in it. The legions of pious liberals, including Barack Obama, who castigated the Bush Administration over the whole interrogation controversy, now identify themselves as fellow accomplices in a seditious game in which the security of this nation is treated as purely secondary to the real goal, which is political advancement.

In the process, they have gravely undermined a critical effort to gain vital intelligence from America's enemies. And if the nation's weakened ability to gather such information means that terrorists can inflict more mayhem on our homeland, it will merely amount to "collateral damage." War is hell.

Were the Pelosi controversy the only incident of dangerous mishandling of the terror war effort, it would be bad enough. Sadly, much worse is occurring at even higher levels of the government. The Obama Administration continues to seek political mileage from its vilification of the Bush White House and its handling of the terror war.

The release of highly sensitive information regarding CIA interrogation procedures constituted an act of betrayal, not only of that organization, but also of the entire nation that has benefited from the intelligence gained from captive terrorists. This was another calculated decision by Obama, in which the possibility of a future terrorist incident was weighed against the political mileage he might gain by making his predecessors look bad on the nightly news. Again, the fate of innocent Americans has been relegated to a distant second-place behind the political opportunism the situation represents.

Recently, New Yorkers briefly relived the horror and fear that was visited on them in September of 2001, as Air Force One made some unannounced low altitude fly-bys of the Statue of Liberty and Ground Zero in order to shoot a few White House publicity photos. Perhaps the citizens of the Big Apple, along with the rest of the nation, ought to apply the episode as a grim reminder of what once was their fate at the hands of Islamists consumed with hatred and willing to stop at nothing to act on it.

The Washington circus being conducted by the Democrats over the past few weeks should be viewed against last week's terrifying moments in New York, and the stark reality they recalled. The entire dispute over interrogation techniques, release of information, and the willingness of Democrats to thoroughly pervert the record of events revolves around people who, unlike the pilots of Air Force One and its chase planes, took aim at those buildings as a means of wreaking unimaginable havoc and slaughter on Americans on that terrible day.

Pelosi and Obama want to remake terrorists into sympathetic characters. America should demand something better from its leaders.