The McBride Doctrine: Once an enemy, always an enemy

We have noted previously that when it comes to foreign policy, Jessica McBride makes the Bush-Cheney administration look like a collection of limp-wristed liberals.

She's out-Bushed Bush on Iraq. When Bush said US troops would leave if the Iraqi government asked them to, McBride said she'd keep them there anyway.

She has no problem with plotting the violent overthrow of the Laotian government from the US, and would not prosecute Gen. Vang Pao for doing so. After all, she says, Vang is simply doing what we asked him to do 40 years ago -- fighting communism.

And she blasts Bush for wanting to expand trade with Vietnam while that communist government stifles dissidents and doesn't allow democracy. That post also explains her Iraq doctrine:

(Note: I support the war in Iraq because I believe surrendering would be a victory for al-Qaida and would strengthen the hand of Iran in the Middle East. We also have a moral obligation to finish what we started. The people of Iraq deserve democracy...)

Where to begin?

Maybe by highlighting the irony of saying the people of Iraq deserve democracy, but we should ignore the wishes of Iraq's democratically-elected government when it comes to the question of US troops occupying the country.

Or by observing that al-Qaida was not in Iraq until the US invaded and occupied the country on trumped-up claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and somehow was linked to the 9/11 attacks.

Or maybe by noting that the US prevented Vietnam from having the democratic elections we promised them in 1954, because it was clear they would choose Ho Chi Minh and communism. Twenty years and millions of casualties later, we got the same result: a unified, communist Vietnam.

"Finishing what we started" in Iraq could take another 20 years. And we probably would still not like the outcome.

Finally, we might observe that the right wing loves democracy when it works the way it's "supposed" to. But when democracy "goes astray" and chooses a Salvador Allende in Chile or a Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, the right has no hesitation in trying to overthrow the elected government.

A McBride foreign policy would bring democracy to the world the way the Crusades brought Christianity -- by the sword, whether people want it or not.

Afterthought: We added the second line of the headline in an attempt to summarize the doctrine. That got us wondering: Do you think Japan, Germany, and Italy are still on her list as part of the axis of evil-doers, or have they been forgiven? It seems it's only when we lose that she doesn't think we should ever forget, but you never know. Her doctrine is still a work in progress.