September 22, 2006
There's an old Arab proverb that says: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.” This has guided, and sometimes misguided, this country's foreign policy since its inception. We buddied up with the French to fight the British. We allied ourselves with the Soviets to fight the Axis in World War II. More recently, we placed our faith in Saddam Hussein against the Iranians and the Mujahadeen against the Soviets. It always seems that we have to come back and fight those very forces we have joined with to extinguish our mutual enemy. It sometimes brings into question the wisdom of such alliances but the excuse has always been that the immediate need outweighed the long-term consequences.
The left in America has roundly criticized this policy, calling such alliances evil, yet they seem to be engaged in such a pact and don't even acknowledge their hypocrisy. Their primary target is George W. Bush. In seeking to bring him down they have allied themselves with mutual enemies; Venezuelan President Hugu Chavez being one of them. Chavez's characterization of President Bush as “the devil” drew feigned condemnation from some Democratic leaders but most on the left had to mute its agreement. Jesse Jackson had a private conversation with Chavez. “I urged him to stop for his own good,” Jackson said afterward. In other words, Jackson was concerned about what Chavez was doing to his own reputation and the “movement,” giving not one thought to the attack against an American president and America , in general.
The same voices that lambaste conservatives over the slightest appearance of violating constitutional rights fall silent when it comes to Chavez's power grab in his own country. After he came to power in 1998 he set about lifting the ban on consecutive re-election and made it crime to “lie” about the government. Of course, the sole arbiter of what constitutes a “lie” would be Chavez himself. He summarily fired some 16,000 government oil employees for joining a nationwide strike, actions for which Ronald Reagan was vilified by the left. Such a violator of civil and constitutional rights would normally be roundly criticized by the left but Chavez is the sworn enemy of the left's primary enemy: conservatives and, dare I say, the United States itself.
Chavez has now thrown himself right into the middle of the Axis of Evil. His alliance with Iran is at once bizarre and disturbing. While “Mad Mahmoud” Ahmadinejad was conducting his own dog and pony show at the U.N., Chavez was entertaining his protégé, Iranian President Muhammad Khatami, giving him further assurance that Venezuela has his back when it comes to developing nukes and fighting the U.S. This is the same Iranian regime that relegates women to second-class citizen status, even stoning them if they dare get out of line, and routinely executes men for being gay. Iran is not alone in this conduct. The terrorists who practice their own warped brand of Islam treat women as property and gays as garbage. Their jihad against the pillars of American liberalism is unmatched anywhere in the United States .
Where's the NOW crowd? Where's the gay and lesbian crowd? The leftists in this country, instead of condemning the terrorists, refer to them as “freedom fighters” and volunteer their time as attorneys trying to free them from detention centers. The enemy of their enemy is their friend. The irony, of course, is if they're successful in unleashing the power of this “friend” on their enemy, this friend will turn its sights on them. And they'll be the very first infidels to have their heads lopped off.