Though the Left hates to admit it (you're a "warmonger" if you mention it), America is in the middle -- actually, just the beginning -- of a long, hard, tough war.

The war actually began on 26 February, 1993, when al-Qaeda operatives entered the US (with assistance from Iraqi intelligence) and set off a truck bomb in the parking garage of the World Trade Center. The one-sided war continued for years, with al-Qaeda attacks on the barracks at Riyadh in 1995, Khobar Towers in 1996, the two US embassy bombings (Dar es Salaam and Nairobi) in 1998, the attack on he USS Cole in 2000, and finally the incidents that woke us up and changed the way we viewed the war on 9/11. Most of us are still awake, but by no means all of us.

For eight years, we pretended that the war was just a series of unrelated crimes.  We pretended that there was no Enemy, no network of terrorists planning ever-larger attacks on us and our way of life.  Lulled into a false sense of security by Bill Clinton's mishandling of terrorism, we ignored the most insidious threat we've ever faced as a nation until those terrorists forced us to acknowledge them.

Now it's an election year, and the Democrats want to regain power. They want to return us to that false sense of security in which we pay no attention to the hazy inner workings of the government.  It's kind of tempting, isn't it?  Who wants to live with the reality of terrorist threats every day?  Who volunteers for that (besides, of course, the Israelis)?  Just get rid of George W. Bush, the Democrats pledge, and all will be well.  You can all relax!  We'll take care of you.  Wesley Clark even went so far as to promise no more terrorist attacks, if he becomes President.  John Edwards is a trial lawyer not even finished his first term as Senator; to plunge him into the forefront of an international war would be to commit national suicide.  And as for John Kerry, the current Democratic front-runner, according to his own web site:

Kerry recognizes that a global security effort and the war against terrorism require active participation of the international community.  As President, John Kerry will move quickly to rebuild American alliances and define a global security strategy that is collective, not imperial, inclusive not exclusive, and cooperative not unilateralist. 

Let's ignore for the moment the fact that nearly every country in the world is already assisting us in the war on terror, including France, Germany and Russia.  Let's ignore for the moment the fact that if you handed Kerry a map and asked him to point out the countries that are part of the "imperialistic" American empire, he'd have to take a pass. Let's also ignore for the moment the fact that over sixty countries are a part of the Coalition that is helping Iraq move towards a democratic form of government for the first time ever (48 at the time Saddam was forcibly removed from power), utterly demolishing the "unilateralist" lie. 

In the recent Democratic debate in South Carolina (29 January), John Kerry stated: