Inside the Beltway

Letter from JOC

“Chilling day today,” writes an Army officer deployed to Iraq from the Pentagon. His letter to Washington, which he’s given this column permission to reprint, provides a personal glimpse into last week’s escalation of fighting by Iraqis that killed dozens of U.S. troops….

“I was in the JOC [joint ops center] when a large demonstration began forming in An-Najaf, a little south of here. It started to turn violent when they came closer and closer to the Spanish [military] base in that city,” the officer writes. …

“Hundreds of civilians, many of them armed, with militia among them, began attacking the base. We had an American soldier there as a liaison, and he called in to the JOC to give General [name deleted] a sitrep [situation report]. As the crowd became more violent and a firefight started to break out, you could hear him getting more and more nervous. …

“When it got completely out of hand, he requested air support in the form of Apache gunships. He was extremely stressed and told us if we didn’t get ordnance on target immediately they would get overrun. He said if he broke radio contact it was because they’d been completely wiped out. …

“We had a UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] Predator feed of the area and watched the whole thing unfold as they rushed the gates and fired from the city buildings surrounding the base. It was pretty hairy. Finally, after the gunships arrived, we were able to regain the upper hand. …

“Lots of casualties, mostly on their side. I can see the news articles already, ’Coalition forces fire on demonstration,’ but take my word for it, it was no peaceful demonstration, they were actively engaged in combat. …

“It appears to me this was a well-planned attack on the Spanish in an effort to drive a wedge further between our two countries, now that the newly elected Spanish government wants to pull their forces out of Iraq. …

“I also believe … they have been emboldened … following the desecration of [four American civilian] bodies in Fallujah. Arabs respect strength and respond to violence, a well-planned, metered [U.S] response to avoid civilian casualties is lost on them — in fact, it is seen as a weakness….

“This is going to get worse before it gets better, but we will prevail, I have no doubts.”

Not Vietnam

Leave it to Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, if nobody else, to scold fellow Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts while a guest of Bill Bennett on “Morning in America,” a nationally syndicated program heard over the Salem Radio Network.

“Let’s talk about foreign policy and what’s going on in Iraq,” said the conservative host, a former education secretary and White House drug czar in past Republican administrations, specifically Mr. Kennedy’s equating the escalating casualties in Iraq to another Vietnam.

“Look, as you know I supported the [Iraqi] war,” Mr. Lieberman replied. “I supported the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime because he was a brutal dictator, because he threatened the Middle East; he was clearly an enemy of ours; he was developing weapons of mass destruction; he did support terrorism. …

“Obviously, there were a lot of people in the Democratic Party who did not take that point of view,” he added. “But right now we’re all in this together and … I thought the Ted Kennedy reference to Vietnam was not appropriate.”

Dangerous pattern

Another Democrat questioning President Bush’s leadership during the ongoing war in Iraq is former President Jimmy Carter.

Mr. Carter goes so far as to say that “President Bush’s war was ill-advised and unnecessary and based on erroneous statements, and has turned out to be a tragedy.”

“I’m just glad President Carter wasn’t in charge after Valley Forge, Bull Run or Pearl Harbor,” reacts House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas, a Republican. “Unfortunately, this is becoming a dangerous pattern. Democrat leaders continue to undermine our troops and our coalition’s ability to win the war and bring peace and stability to the Middle East.”

Brutal regimes

He is author of “Willy Nilly: Bill Clinton Speaks Out,” and the Random House satire, “The Politically Correct Guide to American History.”

Now, Inside the Beltway has been provided a peek at Ed Moser’s latest book, “Keeping Kerry Candid: Help John Kerry Make Up His Mind.”

Just in time for the campaign season, it lists quotations on 100-plus issues where the Democratic presidential candidate humorously contradicts himself or flip-flops.

In keeping with the theme of today’s column, here’s a pair of Kerry quotes culled from the book (the first just before the start of the Iraqi war, the second exactly one week after the war began):

• “I remember being one of those [soldiers] and reading news reports from home. If America is at war, I won’t speak a word [criticizing the president] without measuring how it’ll sound to the guys doing the fighting when they’re listening to their radios in the desert.”

• “What we need now is not just a regime change in Saddam Hussein and Iraq, but we need a regime change in the United States.”

• John McCaslin, whose column is nationally syndicated, can be reached at 202/636-3284 or jmccaslin@washingtontimes.com.