Pundit: Dems Showing "Bad Faith" on Iraq?

The Washington Times' Tony Blankley takes aim at Dems who whine when criticized for demanding "immediate withdrawal from Iraq" or for telling our troops and the terrorists that the idea America can win there is "just plain wrong." Blankley wants Americans to have a serious discussion about the consequences of what those Dems are saying.

For his launch pad, Blankley uses remarks by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright:

Last Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright said: "There is not one Democrat who wants us to fail in Iraq. There is not one Democrat that doesn't want our troops to come home safely or wants our homeland to be properly protected or let Iraq develop a democracy and operate within the region. And I have to tell you, to be maligned or as not patriotic or undercutting the effort, I think is unacceptable."

There are some, I'm sure, who heard that and were ready to say, "Gosh, Madam Secretary, let me give you a hug." But not Blankley who responded:

I suppose it depends on what the meaning of "wants" is. I'll give her the second want: that our troops come home safely. I don't doubt that even the most fanatical antiwar Democrat wants our troops to come home safely, and he or she could honestly argue that an immediate withdrawal of all our troops from Iraq could best effectuate that want.

But as to the first, third and fourth wants (wanting us to succeed in Iraq, to protect our homeland, and wanting Iraq to develop democracy and operate within the region), I have to take exception to the former secretary of state's claim. There are several elected Democrats (I won't hold Mrs. Albright's assertion to include rank-and-file MoveOn.org types) who actively support policies that objectively undercut those three wants.

What are rational people to make of Howard Dean's statement that "the idea that we're going to win the war is an idea that, unfortunately, is just plain wrong." In what sense does he "want" us not to fail in Iraq?
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Certainly as to the third point (bringing democracy to Iraq) no sane person can believe that intentionally loosing the war by immediately bringing our troops home is rationally calculated to attain that goal.
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Democratic Party officials, such as Mrs. Albright, who assert that they support both democracy in Iraq and immediate withdrawal can and should be called on such baldly false assertions.
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Democrats (and, for that matter, Republicans) who call for immediate withdrawal should be accused of objectively threatening our national security. Let's have that debate. Politicians who call for immediate withdrawal should not be entitled to claim, as Mrs. Albright does, that they are acting in the best interest of our national security -- whatever they may subjectively think.

Blankley ends with this:

Once upon a time, the French philosopher Jean Paul Sartre shrewdly and stingingly criticized self deceivers with the charge of bad faith (mauvaise foi): the self-deceptive motives by which people often try to elude responsibility for what they do.

Now would be a good time to review the applicability of such bad faith to the politicians who claim to have our national security at heart even as they call for surrender and retreat.

You can read Blankley's column here.