The Left Hedges Its Bets

Reader Dafydd ab Hugh notes that “the Left is already floating the trial balloons for what they will say when the catastrophic defeat occurs — that is, when America is victorious in Iraq.” Dafydd quotes an L.A. Times article, which we won’t link to because of their ridiculous registration (i.e., marketing survey) procedure. But the article begins like this, and, as Dafydd says, the whole point is in the first paragraph:
“Thanks to France and Germany, to Turkey and NATO, to Saudi Arabia, the United Nations and protesters worldwide, when war with Iraq comes, the United
States will have a far better battle plan and a more realistic political strategy han it had before all the unpleasantness began.”
Dafydd comments:
“Ah, so that was it! That was why the Left was protesting, why France, Germany, and their dwarfish allies were blocking action, why Tom Daschle, Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, et al, were trying so desperately to throw a monkey-wrench into the military machinery. It was just a clever ruse to force us to reevaluate our battle plans and strengthen them!”
If the war goes badly, the L.A. Times won’t be blaming France and Germany. But, given that that’s probably too much for the Times to hope for, the next best thing is to try to claim some of the credit for the left when things go well.