September Blues
George Will has a pretty bleak assessment of how the pending Iraq progress report by General David Petraeus will be received by the two opposing camps in the war debate. He compares it to the Weimar Republic.
Come September, America might slip closer toward a Weimar moment. It would be milder than the original but significantly disagreeable.
After the First World War, politics in Germany's new Weimar Republic were poisoned by the belief that the army had been poised for victory in 1918 and that one more surge could have turned the tide. Many Germans bitterly concluded that the political class, having lost its nerve and will to win, capitulated. The fact that fanciful analysis fed this rancor did not diminish its power.
The Weimar Republic was fragile; America's domestic tranquility is not. Still, remember the bitterness stirred by the accusatory question "Who lost China?" and corrosive suspicions that the fruits of victory in Europe had been squandered by Americans of bad character or bad motives at Yalta.
So, consider this: When Gen. David Petraeus delivers his report on the war, his Washington audience will include two militant factions. Perhaps nothing he can responsibly say will sway either, so September will reinforce animosities.
Will's right that the two sides will, inevitably, disagree over the report - no matter what it says. That polarization was firmly in place long before the war became the focal point. The danger here, though, is more for the Democrats. As was mentioned yesterday, there has been a scramble by a lot of Democrats to back away from the Reid-Pelosi winner-take-all strategy of continuous attacks. The only way that would be happening is if some Democrats are seing polling numbers that they do not like - at all.
The problem the Democrats are facing is that when there is unmistakable progress being made by the troops, they are playing with fire to keep attacking and declaring defeat. That's why you're seeing the sudden crumbling of the united front. One thing that would, I think, be a really bad strategy for the Democrats would be to follow their far left elements who have been trying to discredit and smear General Petraeus. That could be the straw that breaks the camel's back, so to speak. Petraeus is widely seen by the public as honest and credible. Much more so than is Congress as a whole. Taking that tack would be a disaster for the Democrats.
By K T Cat, Thursday, 23 August , 2007 @ 12:30 pm
Let’s see if we can follow George Will’s reasoning. People are disagreeing over something and their opinions differ dramatically. Soon there will be a report by someone who has been trying to resolve the issue. That make this just like the Weimar Republic.
Either that or it’s a lot like my daughter’s soccer team deciding on whether to use first or last names on the backs of their uniforms.