Former Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.), who joined George McGovern's ill-fated anti-war Presidential campaign in 1972, writes a persuasive
editorial in today's
Washington Post. The editorial, which lambastes the President's legacy for deciding to invade Iraq, asks what the Democratic party's legacy will be if they chose to continue remaining silent about the Iraq War. "[W]hat will history say about an opposition party that stands silent while all [the things currently happening in Iraq and around the world] go on?" Hart writes. "... To stay silent during such a crisis, and particularly to harbor the thought that the administration's misfortune is the Democrats' fortune, is cowardly. ..."
Continued below the fold.
Sen. Hart, noting the great legacy of past Democratic presidents, then writes that
[a]t stake is not just the leadership of the Democratic Party and the nation but our nation's honor, our nobility and our principles. Franklin D. Roosevelt established a national community based on social justice. Harry Truman created international networks that repaired the damage of World War II and defeated communism. John F. Kennedy recaptured the ideal of the republic and the sense of civic duty. To expect to enter this pantheon, the next Democratic leader must now undertake all three tasks.
Sen. Hart concludes by challenging the Iraq War hawks definition of defeatism, and then defining what defeatism really is:
The real defeatists today are not those protesting the war. The real defeatists are those in power and their silent supporters in the opposition party who are reduced to repeating "Stay the course" even when the course, whatever it now is, is light years away from the one originally undertaken. The truth is we're way off course. We've stumbled into a hornet's nest. We've weakened ourselves at home and in the world. We are less secure today than before this war began.
Who now has the courage to say this?
Well, anyhow, I though this might be some good reading.