The Wall Street Journal’s Richard Tofel (himself a Democrat) urges Democrats to seize the mantle of the true War Party:

Such a policy would entail criticizing the administration’s policy toward Iraq not for excessive bombast, or lack of enthusiasm for multilateralism, but for insufficient results. It was widely mentioned, beginning about eight months ago, that we had about one year before Saddam Hussein would pose a mortal threat to our interests. (Where this one-year estimate came from no one ever seemed to say — just as no one ever said how many months’ margin of error might be implicit in the estimate.) Well, we’ve exhausted perhaps two-thirds of our supposed window of nonvulnerability — and we have almost nothing to show for it.

Beyond Iraq, a War Party critique would ask why we were so timid at Tora Bora, and again in Operation Anaconda. It would ask why we have been reticent about pursuing al Qaeda into Pakistan’s northwestern tribal territories, or into Kashmir. It would also ask why we have pussyfooted in Indonesia and the Philippines.

Personally, I’m with anybody willing to ask those questions — regardless of party affiliation. Just don’t put a sin tax on my Apple Jacks and we’ll get along just fine.

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