More to the point, do Gates and his patron, the president,
have the will to win - to apply the violence necessary to
get the job done without backing off when CNN and the BBC
arrive?
W HEARS THE VOTERS . . .
NEW YORK POST
Editorial
November 9, 2006
Republicans on Tuesday got what President Bush described yesterday as an electoral "thumpin'."
Not for nothing, then, did Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld yesterday take his leave, to be replaced by former CIA Director Robert Gates.
But while the cut-and-run crowd may have been chortling yesterday over Rumsfeld's resignation, Bush made it clear that - as far as he is concerned - the fight will continue.
And it is the president, not Congress, who conducts America's foreign policy.
"I have a message for . . . our enemies," said Bush: "Do not be joyful. Do not confuse the workings of our democracy with a lack of will. Our nation is committed to bringing you to justice. Liberty and democracy are the source of America's strength, and liberty and democracy will lift up the hopes of those you are trying to destroy."
His objective remains unchanged: an Iraq that can sustain and defend itself.
If that means continued war - and, of course, it does - the question becomes: How will the Democrats respond?
Regarding national security, the Democrats have been perceived by Americans as the party of appeasement since the George McGovern debacle in 1972.
This has cost them dearly.
Now, having regained a majority in the House - and, most likely, the Senate, as well - they have a chance to show that they can indeed be trusted with the nation's safety.
True, voter dissatisfaction with the conduct of the Iraq war is palpable - and Bush gets it: "Many Americans voted . . . to register their displeasure with the lack of progress being made" in Iraq.
But that doesn't mean Tuesday was a referendum on the necessity of the war. If it had been, Sen. Joe Lieberman wouldn't have been so handily re-elected in Connecticut.
Clearly, however, a dramatic gesture was needed - and Rumsfeld's departure fills that bill.
Can Gates turn things around?
Can an exemplary - but bureaucratically encumbered - military establishment be reconfigured to fight and defeat a formless, ideologically motivated insurgency quickly enough to make a difference?
More to the point, do Gates and his patron, the president, have the will to win - to apply the violence necessary to get the job done without backing off when CNN and the BBC arrive?
For the president will still be contending with a hostile press corps.
Consider the opening question at yesterday's press conference: The Associated Press's Terence Hunt told Bush that "a solid majority of Americans said yesterday that they wanted some American troops, if not all, withdrawn from Iraq," then demanded to know if he would "heed" that call.
Actually, it was a media-supported exit poll that made that determination, not a "solid majority of Americans."
And the president rightly countered: "I don't know if they said, 'Come home and leave behind an Iraq that could end up being a safe haven for al Qaeda. I don't believe they said [that]."
The fact is, Iraq was one of several factors behind the GOP's losses. Corruption and a perceived abandonment of core Republican principles also top the list.
But even if Iraq were the only issue, it remains that the war must be fought to a successful conclusion. The alternative - unfettered Islamist terror set loose on America and its allies in the Mideast - is too terrible to contemplate.
Americans have always been a fractious people on matters of war and peace. By and large, though, they have come together when it mattered.
Certainly Bush knows that his presidency will be judged successful, or not, based on the outcome of the war in Iraq - which, of course, is merely one theater in the larger War on Terror.
So it is reassuring that Tuesday's results seem not to have deterred George W. Bush from pursuing what he yesterday proclaimed to be "the most important priority" of the rest of his presidency: winning both wars.
We offer our best wishes to Donald Rumsfeld, who leaves government after a lifetime of service to America. He is a patriot.
The same is true of President Bush.
And good luck to Bob Gates.
They need the support of the American people as this critical struggle continues.
nypost.com |
