WHAT IF IRAQ GOES BAD?

JOHN KERRY'S POLITICKING ENDANGERS AMERICA'S FUTURE SECURITY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

So far, John Kerry has trashed the Bush administration's handling of Iraq and insulted the "coalition of the bribed"--that is, Britain, Australia, Italy, Poland, the former Soviet satellite states, and the 30 or so others that are spilling their blood in Iraq on behalf of the Iraqi people. The other day, he even extended his disdain to the Iraqi Prime Minister himself.

Prime Minister Allawi came here not just to beg for help, but to personally convey his gratitude for all the help we've already been so far. He spoke to a joint session of Congress--which one might remember is the actual job site for both Kerry and Edwards--and was honorably and respectfully received. Some (not Democrats) were visibly moved by the Prime Minister's speech.

John Kerry was not present, nor was John Edwards. They were, instead, politicking, as usual. And it was in the form of politics, as usual. Despite the fact that he does not himself live in Iraq (one of the few places in the world where his wife has not bought any real estate), Kerry presumed to know what the reality on the ground really is. He accused the Prime Minister of living in the same "fantasyland" as the President. He essentially accused him of (you'll excuse the popular expression) "sugarcoating" the situation for political purposes.

How disgusting.

Even the president, during the joint press conference, deferred to the Prime Minister on questions of how things were going there. Don't ask me, he implied repeatedly. Ask him; he lives there. The press, however, continued to ignore the Prime Minister, as though their only interest in Iraq is what American politicians think of it. Given the opportunity to "ask the man who owns one," their journalistic instincts disappeared completely.

Imagine if you will, what will happen if John Kerry becomes president and the situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate.

Already, he has given our actual allies no reason to continue working with us, because he considers them beneath his contempt (which reaches pretty low). He wants to trade them in for other "allies" who currently won't give us the time of day and didn't show any interest in deposing Saddam to begin with. Now that Iraq's a quagmire, he seems to argue, they will all jump in with us, if I just ask nicely enough.

But what if France (which has already publicly stated it won't come into the war no matter who is president) and Germany and Russia and the rest of the more valuable "allies" decide they don't want to play after all. And what if John Kerry's sister's unconscionable meddling in the Australian election actually helps result in a change in government in that nation? The prospective new leader promises to leave Iraq if he wins. If that happens, and other real allies start to fall away, what will keep Allawi and the Iraqis from falling apart?

If we don't support the new Iraqi government, who will? And if no one does, how can it survive? Suppose something happens to Allawi, or suppose he just fails to sustain the pro-American government? Suppose Iraq, oil and all, becomes a sworn and violent enemy of the US--only now with a new and improved terrorist training haven for your jihadist pleasure?

How is President Kerry going to keep the evildoers at bay when he has dismantled every potential bar to their ascendancy? The Islamofascists hate two sets of people: Americans and Jews. They hate others for helping us. They attack others to get them out of the way. If we have no will to win, no military morale, and no intention of doing the hard work to get a Democratic Iraq up and running, there are no other nations who have any incentive to do so.

Nitwits across Europe want their countries out of the war. So do the terrorists. And so does John Kerry.

But it won't be London picking up the pieces when the vicious psychotics nurtured and trained in an anti-US Iraq flies more planes into buildings. It won't be Eastern Europeans beheaded in a country they aren't fighting in. It won't be Belgians at risk when there's no one to stop the terrorists.

It will be us.

Can President Kerry come up with some kind of magical plan to protect us against a fully hostile, terroristic and independent Iraq? Will his buddies at the UN intervene to help us? Once he's fired John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge and revoked the Patriot Act and dismantled the homeland security system, what's he going to defend us with? As Zell Miller pointedly inquired, "Spitballs?"