Yet Rauch says the Democrats will pay a heavy political price if they stop supporting the surge

Yet Rauch says the Democrats will pay a heavy political price if they stop supporting the surge: “If

they managed to ram through a withdrawal or timetable on party lines this fall, when most Republicans

think the surge is working, they would be flayed for a generation as the party that seized certain

defeat from the jaws of possible victory. For years to come, Republicans would insist that Democratic

pusillanimity emboldened jihadism, an ugly narrative that some are already rehearsing.” Luckily, says

Rauch, it’s not possible for the Dems to stop the sport, so they shouldn’t bother trying:

“Fortunately, without Republican support, Democrats can’t pull the plug or impose a strict timetable

this fall.”

Rauch concludes that our anger over the disastrous war “does not justify impatience. If Petraeus says

he needs more time, he should get it. If he fails, a course correction won’t be long in coming. The

22nd Amendment has seen to that.”

One question for the editors of Reason: What has any of this to do with libertarianism?

“Well, you know, the only people taking ‘marching orders’ from Osama bin Laden, as far as I can

tell, are every presidential candidate (Mr. Clinton and Mr. UGGs) except Mr. Paul. Mr. Paul has it very

square about what the motivation of our enemy is, and it’s certainly exactly what he said it is,

intervention. …