Professor Bernard Lewis of Princeton University, a foremost authority on the Middle East, wrote a piece not long ago for the Wall Street Journal in which he likened the War on Terror to the Second World War, asserting that Hitler might have won had dissension in the United States been as great in the 1940s as it is today. President Bush, in a recent television interview, spoke of progress being made in Iraq and warned of the dangers posed by those who want to “give in” to terrorists. What both men were talking about, of course, was the call by members of the Far Left of the Democratic Party to scale down our effort in Iraq and depart. “Bush’s War,” in their judgment, has been a disaster. (Some paleo-conservatives like Jeffrey Hart also support this position, believing that democracy is not wanted or needed everywhere.) The Nancy Pelosi/Howard Dean/Harry Reid/ Russ Feingold position in general resembles the attitude of the Left in the latter stages of the Vietnam War, even though that conflict bears very little resemblance to the struggle facing us today.

One of the great tragedies of our time is that the War on Terror has become politicized. Votes seem to matter more than the security of the Middle East, the sacrifices sustained by American troops, and the hopes and aspirations of most Iraqis for democracy. Feingold, an articulate ideologue who portrays himself as an independent thinker, wants to be president. Pelosi, Reid, and Dean, shell shocked by the last two presidential elections, seem unable to cooperate with the Administration on anything. When the House of Representatives recently voted on a resolution saying that the chamber was committed “to achieving victory in Iraq” and that setting an “artificial timetable” would be “fundamentally inconsistent with achieving victory,” Democrats voted against the resolution 108-59, while 32 voted “present.” The polarization has to encourage the terrorists and their sponsors throughout the globe. If enough Americans lose their nerve in wartime, those committed to the destruction of everything we in the West cherish will be emboldened as never before. Call it the Ho Chi Minh principle.

Ironically, many Democrats tend to wave a white flag at precisely the time in which great progress is being made in Iraq. A Brookings Institution report cited by columnist Max Boot notes that the Iraqi economy is beginning to boom (per capita income has doubled since 2003), order is being restored (5,500 police-service personnel have been trained and equipped), communications (44 commercial television stations, 72 radio stations, more than 100 newspapers) are up and running, thousands of public schools have been constructed, hundreds of public health and water and sewage projects have been completed, the Iraq military (22 new battalions) is increasingly able to take the lead in combat operations, and two national elections have been held successfully.

The War on Terror and our efforts in Iraq should command the solid allegiance of Americans and their elected leaders. Regrettably, the Far Left, for partisan and ideological reasons, has chosen to weaken the nation’s efforts and wage a war on the Administration in the process. Rather than execute Saddam for his butchery, perhaps they would prefer to give the deposed tyrant a regular program on PBS, a stage for hammering away at the United States so many on the Left mistrust and abhor. If Saddam is unavailable, then how about Ramsey Clark?

Courage, Winston Churchill once observed, is"the greatest of all human virtues because it makes all the other ones possible."