Should Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid Be Forced to Resign?

After a meeting with the President of the United States on Wednesday, April 17th, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) Nevada has this terse and bleak assessment of the War in Iraq. ""I believe myself that the secretary of state, secretary of defense and - you have to make your own decisions as to what the president knows - (know) this war is lost and the surge is not accomplishing anything as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq yesterday."

The outrage over Reid's remarks, which came not only from Republicans, but a few Democrats, was almost instant. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) Kentucky, said: "I can't begin to imagine how our troops in the field, who are risking their lives every day, are going to react when they get back to base and hear that the Democrat leader in the United States Senate has declared the war is lost." The President, however, said it best when asked to compare Iraq to Vietnam, After Vietnam, after we left, millions of people lost their life. My concern is there would be a parallel there," Bush said. Then he added a warning."This time around, the enemy wouldn't just be content to stay in the Middle East, they'd follow us here."

The next day, Reid offered a "clarification" of his remarks. "As long as we follow the president's path in Iraq, the war is lost. But there is still a chance to change course -- and we must change course."

Just to illustrate the enormity of what the Democrat leader in the Senate, Mr. Reid, has done, imagine if an American political leader had used that kind of rhetoric during World War II. Let's suppose that in the midst of, say, the Battle of the Bulge, which killed 19,000 Americans--more than five times the killed during the entire War on Terror, or Okinawa, which killed 12,500 Americans--almost four times the killed during the entire War on Terror? Such a politician would not only have been wrong, as each battle took place just months before the final victory in their respective theater, but would have also been considered a traitor. His pronouncements would have been compared to those of Tokyo Rose or Lord Haw Haw, who broadcast propaganda for the enemy. His punishment would have been quick and severe.

Alas, we do not punish people, like Harry Reid, who offer rhetoric that aid and comfort the enemy and, by extension, demoralize our own side. The First Amendment gives people the right to undermine the War on Terror and to substitute their own judgement for that of the Generals in the field. Even when people like Reid go further than rhetoric, by holding up funding for our troops fighting in Iraq and actually threatening to cut off funding entirely, in effect shooting our troops in the back, FBI agents are not on their way to Mr. Reid's office to arrest him.

Back during the Civil War, Congressman Clement Vallandigham, leader of a political faction known variously as the "Peace Democrats" and the "Copperheads" declared that the war was being fought not to save the union but to free the slaves and enslave southern whites.(Somewhat like the modern Copperheads who proclaim that the War on Terror is being fought for oil.) He was arrested, tried, and convicted of sedition. President Lincoln commuted his sentence from imprisonment to exile in the Confederacy. At the time, the Civil War was even more unpopular--if one believes the polls--than the current War in Iraq. Yet Lincoln, like President Bush is attempting to do, persisted until victory.

It would be fascinating of some of the modern Copperheads were to find themselves exiled to--say--Iran or Syria. It's not very likely to happen, of course. We seem to have a better tolerance for the modern Copperheads like Harry Reid.

Still there is a remedy that is in Harry Reid's hands, should he ever wake up to the enormity of what he has done or if pressure can be brought to bear. Harry Reid should resign from the Senate in disgrace. This would send a message that there are indeed consequences for trying to undermine the War on Terror and will be a contribution to bringing the day of final victory just a little closer.