True North

Tuesday, President Bush sat down for an interview with Politico.com and Yahoo, the first presidential interview with online new services. One of the things he commented on was Jimmy Carter’s destructive (my word, not his) role in the Middle East. Here’s what President Bush said:

He criticized former President Jimmy Carter for suggesting an approach to Middle East involvement that Bush described as “if you want to be popular in the Middle East, just go blame Israel for every problem.” “That will make you popular,” he said. “Popularity is fleeting. … Principles are forever.”

This is more than a characterization of Carter’s mindset. It’s the Democrats’ approach to foreign policy. Their’s is a let’s do what’s popular while it’s popular approach.

Bill Clinton stayed with Somalia until it became unpopular. Then he made the mistake of listening to John Murtha who said military victory wasn’t possible. We’ve heard that before, haven’t we? Here’s something else President Bush said during the interview:

President Bush warned in an interview Tuesday that the Democratic presidential candidates’ plans to withdraw abruptly from Iraq could “eventually lead to another attack on the United States” and would “embolden” terrorists.

In a White House interview with Politico and Yahoo News, a president’s first for an online audience, Bush said his doomsday scenario for a premature withdrawal “of course is that extremists throughout the Middle East would be emboldened, which would eventually lead to another attack on the United States.”

“The United States pulling out of Iraq or pulling out of the Middle East or not maintaining a forward presence would send all kinds of signals throughout the Middle East,” he said in the Roosevelt Room. “And it would shake everybody’s nerves, and it would embolden the very same people that we’re trying to defeat.

I’m certain that Democrats will scream about that but there’s precedent for that.

It was John Murtha’s advice to Bill Clinton that convinced Osama bin Laden that America was a paper tiger. I wrote about that here and here:

The public record shows that bin Laden took our pulling out of Somalia as proof that America was a paper tiger. Here’s what bin Laden told ABC’s John Miller:

“Our people realize[d] more than before that the American soldier is a paper tiger that run[s] in defeat after a few blows,” the terror chief recalled. “America forgot all about the hoopla and media propaganda and left dragging their corpses and their shameful defeat.”

Other than Joe Lieberman, Democrats don’t have the steadfastness, persistence and tenacity to deliver a knockout punch to the jihadists.

That’s why people don’t question John McCain when he says that he’s Hamas’ worst nightmare. They know that he has the steadfastness, persistence and tenacity to deal with them.

People do question Barack Obama’s steadfastness, persistence and tenacity towards terrorism when Hamas’ spokesman says that they want him elected this November. It’s possible they view him as another Jimmy Carter. It’s possible they view him as another pacifist who’s more interested in being popular than in being right.

I don’t want the US president to be popular with the tyrants throughout the Middle East. I want Ahmadinejad and Assad fearing him. I want them laying awake at night worrying what he’ll do to undercut their regimes. I don’t want him to be a warmonger.

Until Democrats get serious about that, they shouldn’t be given the keys to the White House.

Cross-posted and comments welcome at Let Freedom Ring.