Defeatocrat...And Proud of It!

We suppose James Carroll ought to get some credit for admitting just what he is:

It is one thing to feel uneasy about your nation's war, or even to move to a position of outright opposition. It is another to face the harsh fact that the only way out of the war is to accept defeat. The goal of "peace with honor" assumes that the nation's honor has not already been squandered. During Vietnam, for all the widespread opposition to the war, the American public was never ready to face the full truth of what had been done in its name, and so the martial band played on. And on. The war ended not with a bang, but with a whimper, with the United States whining that somehow it had been the victim. Not incidental to the present disaster is the fact that the men dragging out that shameful last moment of Vietnam, when our nation's abject defeat was made plain for all the world to see, were Ford administration honchos Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

Rumsfeld and Cheney are prepared to do it to their nation again. The question now is whether America will let them? The general uneasiness with the war in Iraq is mostly tied to how badly it has gone. Tactical and strategic planning have been bungled at every level, and the elusive enemy is yet to be understood in Washington. If the Democrats take power with the elections tomorrow, congressional hearings will have a lot of such questions to consider. But what about the moral question? For all of the anguish felt over the loss of American lives, can we acknowledge that there is something proper in the way that hubristic American power has been thwarted? Can we admit that the loss of honor will not come with how the war ends, because we lost our honor when we began it? This time, can we accept defeat?

Update: Carroll's timing couldn't have been worse for Tim Russert and Rahm Emanuel:

SEN. DOLE: .... it’s almost as if the Democrats, you know, it’s like they’re content with losing because to pull out, to withdraw from this war is losing. No question about it. You look at...

MR. RUSSERT: The Democrats are content with losing.

SEN. DOLE: The Democrats appear to be content with losing because they’re to...

REP. EMANUEL: I really...

SEN. DOLE: No, no, I, I want to finish what I’m saying here because...

REP. EMANUEL: I, I, I, no, no, you made yourself—Senator, wait a little sec, Senator...

SEN. DOLE: No, I, I’m going to finish this.

MR. RUSSERT: That’s a very strong statement.

SEN. DOLE: It is a strong statement.

REP. EMANUEL: Yeah, senator, senator, you, you...

MR. RUSSERT: Senator, that’s a very strong statement. I think he, he deserves a right to respond, no, no, no.

REP. EMANUEL: Senator, that is not fair.

SEN. DOLE: Yeah, it is, but I would like to finish why...

MR. RUSSERT: You—I’ll let you back, but I’ll tell you, when you make a statement like that...

REP. EMANUEL: Senator, senator, senator.

SEN. DOLE: ...why, why they appear to be content to lose.

MR. RUSSERT: Excuse me. When you make a comment like that, I got to give the other side a chance to respond.

SEN. DOLE: But I do need to explain what I mean by that.

REP. EMANUEL: Senator. Senator, you, you, you said something that’s wrong.

SEN. DOLE: Osama bin Laden and, and, and they...

REP. EMANUEL: Democrats, Democrats have provided—wait a second, Senator.
I’ve—I understand some. I will not sit si...

SEN. DOLE: No. Rahm, I want to finish what I said.

REP. EMANUEL: ...I will not sit idly by with an accusation that Democrats are content with losing.

SEN. DOLE: They appear to be content to lose...

REP. EMANUEL: We want to win and we want a new direction to Iraq because after three, three years—I’m—Tim...

SEN. DOLE: ...because when you pull out, this is losing. That we know that it becomes a breeding ground...

MR. RUSSERT: All right, hold on. Hold on. Time out, time out, time out.

REP. EMANUEL: Forget about it.

MR. RUSSERT: Time out. Time—time out. Time out, please.

SEN. DOLE: ...a breeding ground for terrorists. We’ve got Iran and Syria sitting there on each side of Iraq...

REP. EMANUEL: That, that’s wrong. You should take that back, Senator.
We’ll have differences, but we do not disparage you like that, Senator.

MR. RUSSERT: You’ve made your point. You’ve made your point, Senator.