Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith, t r u t h o u t , April 27, 2007
The Democrats and the peace movement are walking into a trap.
The Republicans are preparing with Rovian cunning to focus the mind of the public on the question: Who lost Iraq?
And they are already giving the answer: The Democrats and the peace movement.
Republicans are preparing to dominate future decades of American politics by blaming the failure of the Iraq war on those who “sent a signal” that the US would not “stay the course” whatever the cost. President Bush and Vice President Cheney have already begun to project such a “stab in the back” myth. At a recent Republican luncheon, Cheney told senators that “What’s most troubling” about Sen. Harry Reid’s recent comment that the war is lost “is his defeatism.”
It’s a weak reed right now. But it will be much more serious when Americans are forced to face the chaos and humiliation that will come with recognition not only that America is failing, but that it has failed.
At the moment, a combination of war weariness and President Bush’s unpopularity prevent such an argument from gaining much traction. As long as people are eager for the war to end, they will think of the Republican argument primarily as an obstacle to getting out.
But that will no longer protect the Democrats or the peace movement once the US occupation is ended and the subsequent regional conflagration and defeat of American surrogates has begun. The Swiftboating machine will go into high gear to blame each new outrage on those in the US who didn’t give 100 percent support to the war.
Democrats in Congress instinctively recognize this danger. Many respond by promoting mild policies like benchmarks and non-binding timetables, notwithstanding their constituents’ demand for withdrawal. But the Republican strategy will cleverly ensnare even those who endorse such tepid measures, because it will blame defeat not only on an actual failure to provide material support for the troops, but on any “defeatist” who “sends a message to our enemies” that American domination will not be there forever.