Left I on the News  

Of course everyone noticed how in last night's debate there was a rush to the alter to see who could blow the "I love Israel" shofar the loudest. But there was actually more to it than that. Palin called for building the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, a statement which went completely unremarked on. But it was Biden's statements that were really telling (or would be, if you didn't already know). First this:

"The president...insisted on elections on the West Bank, when I said, and others said, and Barack Obama said, "Big mistake. Hamas will win. You'll legitimize them." What happened? Hamas won."

As I'm sure I've written before, these "Democrats" wouldn't know "democracy" if it hit them over the head. A point which Biden then went on the emphasize (implicitly!) in his next statement:

"When we kicked -- along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said and Barack said, 'Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don't know -- if you don't, Hezbollah will control it.'

"Now what's happened? Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government in the country immediately to the north of Israel."

Now at first I didn't know what the heck he was talking about, but my friend Richard Becker suggests that he really meant "we kicked Syria out of Lebanon," so let's just chalk that up to a slip of the tongue and take a look at what he had to say given that assumption.

First, the idea that "we" (along with France!) had some kind of "right" to "kick Syria out of Lebanon," as if Lebanon doesn't have the right to manage its own affairs, and "we" have a perfect right to intervene. Of course, on that logic, Iran (or Russia or Venezuela or Cuba or pretty much anyone) would have a perfect right to "kick the U.S. out of Iraq," a country whose government has supposedly "invited" foreign troops to occupy its territory, not at all dissimilar to the Syrian troops in Lebanon, except for the minor difference that the Syrian troops weren't actually killing Lebanese on a daily basis, and they were actually invited to be there by the Lebanese government. No matter what fig-leaf is in place to claim the current presence of U.S. troops is by "invitation," the original presence (the invasion) clearly was not.

Then, after praising the removal of foreign interference in Lebanon, Biden then turns on a dime and talks about how "we" should have followed that up by sending NATO troops in. Not, mind you, to replace the Syrian troops in any way, but to make sure Hezbollah didn't take "control." Just one little thing...Hezbollah is Lebanese!!! So what Biden was advocating was sending in NATO troops to make sure the Lebanese people didn't establish control over their own country.

And, sure enough, in his last sentence, there's Biden complaining that "Hezbollah is a legitimate part of the government." Imagine that! Well, harumph, harumph, we can't have that! People in another country having a government we don't like - what were they thinking?

And that is what Biden labeled an "abject failure" by the Bush Administration.

As I said, these "Democrats" (and Republicans, needless to say) wouldn't recognize "democracy" if it were headed directly at them on a one-way street.