"[T]his war has been lawyered to death"

In my post "The 'war' is a cover", I point out that Democrats who insist the war is about illegal invasions, the fallacy of pre-emption, Rovian designs to drive Liberals crazy and requiring soley the alternative strategy of police action and UN sanctions to contain real global threats are barking up the wrong tree. The last election was not about the quick exit from Iraq or a repudiation of how most intelligence experts see the world.

I don't expect Hillary to castrate Executive power or discredit the concept of military force when other options have run their reasonable course. Based on what I think Clarke and others told Hillary during the Clinton years, a long struggle is on the menu for the West regarding terrorism and the nexus of WMD and extremist/criminal organizations. Most Democratic candidates foresee an extended stay in Iraq and our leading General seems opposed to troop cuts now in Iraq. I ask M.R. to give us his fiction of where we would be now had the US not removed Saddam and followed what the nutroots think is in order.

I haven't heard one Democrat defend Bush's remarks to Roh (nor say good job), while claiming for months that Bush had forgotten the "other" North Korean nuclear programs. Instead, North Korea responded and invited the US, China and Russia to inspect those programs and promised to verify their closing by the end of the year. The Democrats would like all to see the world in their vision of black and white, but I wouldn't expect Hillary or even Obama once elected, to drink the Kool Aid. The burden of terror will be upon their backs and they will need bi-partisan support to respond to attacks. They are coming. Every candidate knows it and so does a waking Europe.

"If anything, the next Democratic President ? having digested a few threat matrices, and acutely aware that he or she alone will be wholly responsible when thousands of Americans are killed in the next attack?will be even more anxious than the current President to thwart the threat?.?"

At least in the sense that the Democratic candidate will not go as far as the nutroots and far-left want, and move away from the overall post 9/11 paradigm. Reasonable safeguards will be in place, as they should, but at the end of the day, for all the complaints about the Patriot Act, not much will really be taken out.

"In the world you will find tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world."

John 16:33