Bush will win

Kristol over at the Weekly Standard is confident Bush will win reelection. Reason?

It's not just that in Europe every leftist anti-American creep and every world-weary phony sophisticate wants and expects Bush to lose in November, and America to lose in Iraq. Surely the American people won't give them the satisfaction of having their wishes granted. Nor would the American people want to devastate the few beleaguered pro-American, pro-war-on-terror, anti-appeasement politicians and intellectuals in Europe.

Bush will certainly propel to a win, but it would be for other reasons, too, namely--Memorial Day, D-Day, Reagan's death, and last but not least, the unveiling of the Interim Iraqi Cabinet.

These last two weeks will go down as the turnaround moment in his reelection campaign and here's why. The months of May through July are often the most poignant days for politically active Americans. This is when they show up in Washington DC to unlearn and learn and protest.

Millions of Americans did come to DC these last few days. Some came to squat in front of the White House to protest the squatters on the other side of the fence.

But for many like myself, it was about the dedication of the WW2 memorial and the unique opportunity to rub shoulders with the Greatest Generation and recall the sacrifices of D-Day.

Millions learnt, let us hope, about other lesser-known American sacrifices, such as the 'Forgotten War'--Korea, which claimed nearly 40,000. But the one war all Americans wish they could forget--Vietnam--was likely reviewed in a new light. The most divisive war was actually the best demonstration of American selflessness. And it is important to remember this uniquely American character when we hear our friends and neighbors ascribe ulterior motives to the Iraq war.

As I walked the Mall and observed my fellow visitors, I was convinced they will go back changed people--maybe not pro-Bush or pro-Iraq, but less suspicious of America; more supportive of the men and women who wear its uniform; less critical of the phrase that has been rendered so hollow in recent years--"freedom is not free".

Comparisons of the War on Terror and Iraq mission with WW2 and Reagan with W were thick and heavy these past few days. Whether they agree or not, few can deny that this President is as determined to defeat the totalitarian empires and evil ideologies of Islamic militants like Bin Laden, Saddam, and the Mullahs in Iran, as FDR was about the German Nazis, the Italian fascists, and the Japanese militarists and Reagan was about Communism.

The Berlin wall did eventually come down and millions were set free--and as Americans walked the Mall with all its ugly concrete security barriers--a recent, desperate innovation--many must have wondered whether we will ever see, in our lifetime, the tearing down of these new monuments to a different kind of evil.

And then there is Iraq--25 million liberated with less than a thousand American casualties--a stunning accomplishment that is bound to resonate with a new zeal in all who learnt about the massacre of D-Day.

Last, there is the new Iraqi cabinet--a remarkable step from just a year or so ago, when a world flummoxed by Saddam Hussein actually argued in support of the genocidal UN sanctions regime.

Thanks to American sacrifice, grit, and unrelenting grace--we lost men and women, but we didn't beg the French for help after they turned us down once--the debate has shifted dramatically to democracy, liberty, and human rights--something unthinkable just a few months ago.

No matter what Americans think about the Iraq mission, you will find few disagreeing that it is far better to be in analysis paralysis over the unfolding democratic process than live in the shadow of a megalomaniac Arab dictator with an addiction to WMD.