Democrats Fail in Battle Against Islamism

In a column that appeared Tuesday in the Los Angeles Daily News online, Paul Kujawsky, a member of the Democratic Party Central Committee, and an occasional guest columnist on The Hedgehog Blog, writes that the recent California Democratic Party Convention in San Diego proved that the Democrats have failed to seriously address the fight against Islamism. Here are some excerpts:

"So it seems that in 2008 voters will choose between a Republican Party which is serious about the war against Islamism but isn't very good at it, and a Democratic Party which has little or nothing to say about it beyond 'Bush lied.'"...

"The Islamists have declared war against the U.S., the other liberal democracies, even Muslim governments that don't toe their line. Appeasement is impossible; concessions simply whet their appetites. Fleeing Iraq would demonstrate that we don't have the stomach for this long-term fight. Moreover, it would win new recruits for Islamism, as fence-sitters always come down on the side that seems to be prevailing. Our own security would inevitably suffer.

"Frankly, it's a mystery why the most imperialistic, malevolent political force in the world arouses so little passion among my fellow Democrats. Hostility toward Islamism should come as naturally to us as hostility towards Nazism. If we adopted this war for civilization and freedom as our own, we would surely do better than Bush has done. Instead, the only merchandise we offer voters is "out of Iraq." It's very disappointing."