Who cuts and runs? Republicans, of course. [View All]

H.D.S. Greenway The Boston Globe

Published: June 21, 2006
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/21/opinion/edgreen.php

BOSTON -- {snips} Last week the White House operative Karl Rove traveled to New Hampshire to pump up the faithful by telling them that if Democrats had their way, Iraq would have fallen to terrorists. "When it gets tough, and when it gets difficult, they fall back on that party's old pattern of cutting and running," Rove said.

Never mind that there were no terrorists in a position to take over in Iraq before the U.S. invasion. What struck me about Rove's speech was "the old pattern of cutting and running" bit. I don't remember that either Woodrow Wilson or Franklin Roosevelt, both Democrats, had advocated cutting and running in World Wars I and II. If I remember correctly, a good part of the opposition to Roosevelt's efforts to keep democracy alive in Europe came from the Republican Party.

And wasn't it Dwight Eisenhower, the Republicans' first successful presidential candidate in 20 years, who campaigned on the promise, "I will go to Korea" to bring that unpopular war to a close?

And in Lebanon, it was Ronald Reagan, a Republican, who decided to cut and run when the marines he had sent ashore were bombed in their barracks.

So it's a little hard to discern what "old pattern" Rove is talking about . . .

more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/21/opinion/edgreen.php