While Iraqis are joyfully casting their ballots in a democratic election in the heart of the Middle East, many on the left side of the political spectrum do not share these positive sentiments. From the BBC:

But nothing today would stop the people from voting. …

Men and woman came, many carrying small children, and in the street outside the school they formed silhouettes, in swirls of dust on a warm autumn day in Baghdad.

One voter said: “This is stability, at last”.

Another, with tears in his eyes, told me: “This is the beginning of a new Iraq. I am so happy.”

Iraqis are known for their spontaneous, and often poetic eloquence.

Ali al-Musawi, a Shia Muslim originally from Sadr city said: “Iraq is like a ship in a storm being tossed form left to right, and now we need a new captain to take us to land and to safety.”

One man hoped the election would bring an end to the occupation, but this would depend, he said, on maintaining unity.

“Stability can only come from unity. When we have stability,” he said,” then the Americans can go.”

Democrats like John Murtha and Howard Dean babble inanities about a “new war strategy,” but they have nothing new to offer. Dean, true to his howl-and-screech form, is already stepping back from previous criticism of the Bush Administration:

Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean said Thursday his assertion that the United States cannot win the war in Iraq was reported “a little out of context,” saying Democrats believe a new U.S. strategy is needed to succeed there.

Seeking to clarify a statement in a Texas radio interview that Republicans harshly assailed and some Democrats questioned, Dean said, “They kind of cherry-picked that one the same way the president cherry-picked the intelligence going into Iraq.”

Dean was questioned on CNN about an interview he gave Monday to radio station WOAI in San Antonio. “The idea that we’re going to win this war is an ideal that unfortunately is just plain wrong,” the former Vermont governor and unsuccessful 2004 presidential candidate said.

Unsuccessful for a reason: he’s too far left for most Americans (yet the Democratic Party made him their chairman, nonetheless).

Murtha is just plain incoherent (hat-tip to Jeff Kouba):

When I said we can’t win a military victory, it’s because the Iraqis have turned against us. They throw a hand grenade or a rocket into American forces and the people run into the crowd and they — nobody tells them where they are.

Really? The quotes from the Beeb above don’t reveal such sentiments. Murtha doesn’t mention this:

Iraqi security forces and Task Force Baghdad Soldiers continued to scour the streets of Baghdad during operations Dec. 3-7, hunting down terrorists, disabling roadside bombs and seizing stockpiles of weapons.

Some of the success of these operations can be attributed to tips received from concerned citizens who approached Iraqi and U.S. forces with information about the whereabouts of terrorists and weapons caches.

While Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 184th Infantry Regiment were on patrol in south Baghdad Dec. 3, they were approached by two Iraqi citizens who said they knew where suspected terrorists were located. When the U.S. Soldiers went to the residence in question, they found six individuals — two of whom were known for terrorist activity. All six suspects were detained for further questioning.

Another patrol operating in west Baghdad Dec. 3 was stopped by an Iraqi woman who told the Soldiers about an improvised explosive device which had been planted in the area.

The woman pinpointed the location of the IED on a map for the Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment. When the patrol went to the location, the Soldiers found a 155-millimeter round with a radio device attached to it. An explosive ordnance disposal team was summoned to the site and the IED was rendered safe.

Soldiers from 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment observed an individual emplacing an IED in the Abu Ghraib district Dec. 6. Task Force Baghdad ground and air assets eventually cornered the individual, along with an accomplice, and detained the pair. Those suspects then positively identified another terrorist known for emplacing IEDs. All three suspects were detained for further questioning.

If Iraqis were “turning against us,” then why have millions of them voted in 3 rounds of elections? The BBC reported today that:

Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the last election in January, appear to have participated in large numbers, even in insurgent strongholds.

The fact of the matter is that Democrats have elucidated no new “strategy” for Iraq — except for Joe Lieberman, bless his soul:

Does America have a good plan for doing this, a strategy for victory in Iraq? Yes we do. And it is important to make it clear to the American people that the plan has not remained stubbornly still but has changed over the years. Mistakes, some of them big, were made after Saddam was removed, and no one who supports the war should hesitate to admit that; but we have learned from those mistakes and, in characteristic American fashion, from what has worked and not worked on the ground. The administration’s recent use of the banner “clear, hold and build” accurately describes the strategy as I saw it being implemented last week.

President Bush’s poll numbers are steadily rising as he’s taken the Iraq war to the bully-pulpit. Again, the BBC (12/14/2005):

Some 48% of respondents to the poll said they thought it was a mistake to send US troops to Iraq, as opposed to 54% of those polled last month.

Fifty percent said it was not a mistake, compared to 45% last month. The president’s approval rating was 42% - up 4% from November.

But seeing is believing:

Can’t the Democrats at least share some of the Iraqis’ joy? After all, they’re called “Democrats.” The Left is taking democracy for granted — to an extreme.

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Related: Iraq

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