Copperheads redux

During our Civil War, Northern members of the Democratic Party who were opposed to Abraham Lincoln and his unwavering pursuit of the war, were known as Copperheads. Indifferent to the issue of slavery, they believed that the "conquest" of the South was illegal. Preserving the Union, was not greatly important to them. Britain and France held similar views and both nations were relentless in their determination to support the South. Though constantly criticized and savagely ridiculed, Lincoln nevertheless persevered with the War. The Union was restored and slavery was abolished. A retrospective view of history now treats Lincoln, the great emancipator, quite differently.

Today, the Democratic Party unceasingly vilifies and castigates the current administration for pursuing an illegal and bloody war in Iraq. In concert with the liberal press, many Democrats categorize President Bush as a lying and bumbling idiot who has totally and irreversibly squandered America’s credibility and reputation. But perhaps, as in the case of Lincoln, future historians will actually look back on this period as another of America’s great epochs. They may see that our military presence in the heart of Islam was the ultimate crusade; the one that finally emancipated the impoverished and suffering Muslim people and ushered them into the real (and safer) world.

Open Letter to Senator Harry Reid:

Dear Senator Reid:

You, and many of your fellow partisans, are embarked on a perilous course of action. Be mindful, if you persist in your relentless and denigrating attacks on President Bush and his administration you are not playing a zero-sum game. If you bring him down, the Democratic Party may well go down with him, and our nation as well. But that Pyrrhic victory will be celebrated only by our enemies.

For our federal government to function properly, every administration must acquiesce to careful monitoring and probing review. And indeed, it is every citizen’s responsibility to join in the process. But it should never be done in a gratuitously offensive and inquisitorial manner. While closed sessions may often be necessary, they should be mandatory when dealing with our nation's most crucial secrets.

Respectfully,

The Hornblower