Myth of 'Squandered Sympathy'

John Rosenthal in the Wall Street Journal

In short, upon closer inspection, it turns out that "the world" of which the Democrats speak consists, not surprisingly, of just Germany and France and their inner-European satellites such as fractious Belgium and mighty Luxembourg. This makes all the more odd Ted Kennedy's exhortation to the effect that "we should have strengthened, not scorned, the alliances that won two world wars and the Cold War." Has Senator Kennedy forgotten that America fought the two world wars against Germany?

Another ad prepared by Win Back Respect contains a similar howler. Titled "History," it features two World War II veterans, one of whom, Robert O'Kane, notes, "There's a very divided world about why we're in Iraq--not like World War II." When the U.S. entered the Second World War, it did so in coalition with 25 other states, jointly comprising the so-called United Nations (from which the later international organization would take its name). The majority of these, however, consisted either of countries already under German occupation, whose governments-in-exile adhered to the coalition, or small Latin American or Caribbean states, which declared war on Germany and Japan, but never sent troops to any theatre of operations.

By D-Day, the number of formal adherents to the coalition had risen to the mid-30s, but the bulk of the fighting continued to be borne by the U.S., Britain and the Soviet Union. The number of countries currently contributing personnel to coalition forces in Iraq is 31. Even leaving aside the historical details, a world war supposed to unite, rather than divide, the world is an obvious contradiction in terms. The ad ends with the second veteran, Charlie Vaughn, concluding, "I don't think our President has any sense of history." The shoe is evidently on the other foot. It is President Bush's opponent's who do not have any sense of history--or logic, for that matter.

France has been playing both sides during and since WWII. Why should we consider their feelings when it comes down to defending America? Let's pull our troops out of Germany, since it's such an issue to them. What, we can't do that? That would be bad for the German economy? Think of all the Germans that would lose their jobs? My response is "And your point is?"