The Upcoming Iraqi Election

The upcoming Iraqi election: that is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."

Now you would think everyone in the world who values freedom would be rooting for the Iraqis to have them, but they are not. Here in the USA, some of the anti-Bush crowd would rather have chaos in Iraq than a victory for the president.

And overseas, it's the same thing. France, Germany, and other countries are gloating about the messy Iraq situation. And any ascendance of democracy there is met with scorn.

Even the Vatican, which condemned the war in Iraq, is pretty much silent on the possibility that 25 million human beings may have life without a murderous dictator.

"Talking Points" believes that the goal in Iraq is noble, to have a Muslim country embrace liberty. While that goal is obviously difficult, we are not the bad guys in Iraq. We're trying to do something good and fight terrorism at the same time.

The interesting thing about Senators Kennedy, Kerry, Boxer, Jacques Chirac, Vladimir Putin, and all the rest who refuse to take a proactive stance against Islamic fascism is that they have no solutions to Bin Laden and Zarqawi.

What is Pope John Paul II's solution to worldwide terrorism? According to the new book, "All the Pope's Men", it's to get to the root causes of it, whatever those may be, and let the United Nations deal with the atrocities. Does anyone listening to me right now have confidence the U.N. can prevent terrorist attacks? Anyone?

As for the root causes, that's a fine goal, but it would take decades to even dent. Meantime, innocent people are being slaughtered in the name of Allah.

As for the American opposition to an aggressive war on terror, what can I say? The USA stood by and did little as hundreds of U.S. soldiers and Marines were murdered in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, as two U.S. embassies were blown up, as a U.S. warship was attacked. And remember the World Trade Center was first bombed in 1993. What did we do about it?

So I ask with all due respect what the American left and some critics on the right would do about terrorism. What would Howard Dean (search) do? What would Nancy Pelosi (search) do?

The truth is the Bush administration has made mistakes in Iraq and in defining the new rules in the terror war. But at least the president has a strategy. Most of his opponents have nothing. And until they develop a smart policy to defeat the Islamic killers, they're just spitting in the wind. We need solutions, not partisan blather.

And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Some folks in Austria are mad at Arnold Schwarzenegger (search) and want him to be stripped of Austrian citizenship. The governor is a naturalized American citizen, but also held on to his Austrian credentials, so he is a dual citizen.

Anyway, the anger is over the governor's refusal to block the execution of Donald Beardslee (search), convicted of murdering two women 25 years ago. Many in Europe are against capital punishment (search), so Arnold is under the gun, no pun intended.

It may be ridiculous depending, of course, on your point of view.