It's time the dems throw the Republican's tried and true "fear" card right back at them. Today's thwarted terror plot provides the perfect opportunity.
Bush/Cheney and Lieberman are on point right away, instilling fear into the hearts of all Americans, by claiming that we're able to foil these kinds of plots because Dubya the Decider has taken the fight to the terrorists and that if (God forbid), this country were to fall into the hands of the Ned Lamont/Michael Moore/Howard Dean/Kos crowd, we'd "cut and run" and the terrorists would be "emboldened" to attack the U.S. Nevermind that there is no logic to this argument. It's plainly obvious to any thinking human being that having 150,000 troops caught in the middle of a civil war in Iraq has no effect whatsoever on our abilty to stop such an attack from happening, especially from a place like London. But fear is fear and Dick Cheney, Ken Mehlman and the rest of the Sith certainly are expert in using it to their advantage. The one argument they can continue to run out there is that we have not been attacked since 9/11. The Dems can't argue with that. And if you buy into the dark side's argument, then in the interests of your own personal safety, you can't vote for a Democrat come this November or 2008 - well maybe an Independent Democrat, but I digress........
But what if the Dems were to take the offensive here and flip this argument on it's head? It makes no sense that being in Iraq at ths point can have any positive effect whatsoever on being able to uncover terrorist plots emanating from the UK or elsewhere. The "fight them over there so we don't have to over here" argument doesn't make much sense (not that it ever did) when trying to relate it to a thwarted terrorist plot emanating from the UK. But a STRONG argument can be made that the reason these plots are being undertaken in the first place is precisely BECAUSE we are so mired down in Iraq. This is why these "Islamofascists" are so emboldened in the first place. And (here's where the fear factor comes in):
"IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME before one of these plots slips through undetected. As long as we have our eye off the ball and our brave soldiers are forced to remain in the cross-fire of a Civil War in Iraq instead of being brought home to the heroes welcome they deserve, then IT' S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME before the Republican ineptitude and mis-direction causes us to GET HIT AGAIN. We won't be this lucky forever. Do you want to continue to take your chances with this bungling bunch who by the way were in power when 9/11 happened, or do we bring our brave soldiers home to a heroes welcome and put our energy and resources towards fighting the war on terror and protecting our nation?"
This needs to be the Dem message. We can play the fear card too. IT'S ONLY A MATTER OF TIME...... UNLESS WE CHANGE COURSE NOW.