In the United States, the idea of public opinion, focus groups and governance based on polls has firmly taken shape. Gone are the days of principled leadership, and doing what's right in the face of opposition, and that's rather unfortunate for a multitude of reasons. Democracy is based on, and cannot work without proper accountability of our political figures. Unfortunately, the political system in this country has dissolved into manipulation of public opinion, followed by response to it. Additionally, there are so many elections of so many people in this country that the average citizen cannot and do not hold the proper people to account. In a time of war especially, this process makes a nation very weak and very vulnerable.
The case in point du jour of the lack of resolve and leadership simply requires a look at the Republican congressional leaders and presidential candidates as they seek to distance themselves from President Bush, particularly in the Iraq policy. Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Senator is the latest Republican to jump ship and demand a withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. Why? Perhaps because he is up for re-election next year and does not want to be on the wrong side of public opinion. Did he just suddenly wake up and see the light? Absolutely not, this was a calculated move to distance himself from the war that he staunchly supported.
What's the problem with these constant changes of opinion? Our enemies are embolded and continue to correctly assume that if they continue to pick off some of our people that we will lose our resolve and leave. This is a strategy that the Palestinians have attempted to employ for years and it is a strategy successfully employed by the Viet Cong and by the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan against the Soviets. Further, it masks accountability, that's why flip-flopping on any issue is so popular.
The American political system is not effectively designed to fight the type of war that we are currently fighting. We currently have a media that has a largely negative effect on public support for the action and a Congress that is actively rooting for us to fail in Iraq so that they can increase their power.
The primary reason why we are currently in the position that we are in with regard to Iraq is because of poor leadership on the part of President Bush on a number of fronts: he did not pressure other countries hard enough to participate in the invasion and occupation of Iraq and he was more concerned with public opinion and reaction to the war than in taking the necessary steps for quelling the insurgency, which would have been a full military occupation. His concern with PR has cost us dearly and has allowed a strong insurgency, aided by al Qaeda to develop. Winning wars, particularly wars against ideologically based opponents requires strong leadership and resolve, not people changing positions with the political winds.
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