Democrats for defeat?(Scan)(Brief Article)

The fashion that quickly describes almost every serious U.S. military engagement as "another Vietnam" has gained renewed popularity. Prominent Democrats like Ted Kennedy, not to mention enemies of America like Moktada al-Sadr, have recently been outdoing each other in the media in describing our current situation in Iraq as "Bush's Vietnam."

Former U.S. Senator and current AEI visiting fellow Fred Thompson explained recently what the Democratic faultfinders are up to. "By invoking Vietnam, they are ill effect predicting a U.S. defeat and pullout. Even as they give lip service to winning, they foment a sense of despair instead of offering a strategy for victory. Let's be blunt here: For many of the President's critics, there is a domestic constituency to be won from failure abroad. They are campaigning on defeat."

Thompson reminded his Washington audience that "there's a nation of Americans and a world out there watching us. And these predictions of defeat have profound consequences in the real world. In every war there is a tipping point that ...