War crimes

I don't take sides for or against Hezbollah; I don't take sides for or against Israel."

Those are the words of Michigan Democratic Congressman John Dingell (pictured), spoken on Detroit television and now available via You Tube to the entire world. They are so outlandishly void of moral content that you have to listen repeatedly to grasp that Dingell really is saying he's not against the terrorist organization that killed 241 U.S. soldiers and Marines in 1983, and which for the past three weeks has been launching rockets at the civilian population of Israel. The use of indiscriminate weapons is a war crime, recognized as such by international law. But one of the most senior Democrats in Congress cannot bring himself to declare himself against Hezbollah.

Not only will Dingell not be shunned by his caucus, if the Nancy Pelosi--John Murtha Democrats triumph in the fall and gain back their majority in the House, Dingell will be the chair of the powerful Energy and Commerce Committee.

Though Dingell's outrageous moral equivalence and his party's silence about it shocks, it should not surprise. On the last day of July the congressional Democratic leadership declared that it stands united for retreat from Iraq beginning immediately. "Their action puts party leaders on the same page," The Washington Post reported, "and it helps clarify the Nov. 7 election as a choice between a party seeking a timeline for withdrawing troops from an unpopular war and a party resisting any such timetable."

And those are the moderate Democrats. The Iraq War Powers Repeal Act of 2006, introduced by Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) July 25, has 22 co-sponsors. "It's become very clear that we're not in war," Woolsey asserted. "We're occupying Iraq and the president never came to us and asked us for permission."

Some Democrats can't brand terrorists as terrorists. Some Democrats don't believe we are in a war. Most Democrats at a minimum want to cut and run from a conflict over the future security of this country against the same jihadists who have struck again and again around the globe.