Bumper Sticker Foreign Policy

Jonathan Alter's column in Newsweek is well, interesting. His position, basically, is that the democrats need a catchy new slogan to be successful in dealing with the Iraq war. What did Alter come up with? He came up with the lame, "Pull and Strike" which he says is taken from Clinton's "Lift and Strike" used during the Balkans war. This is pathetic. I don't even remember the term "Lift and Strike" and why should anyone remember any slogan that you would have to research to understand. I won't even explain it here, it doesn't matter.

He thinks the term "war on terror" is the republican's catchy bumper sticker slogan, but it's not. The republicans don't have a slogan for what they're doing in Iraq. What they're good at is using slogans to demean their opponents, i.e. surrender monkeys, cut and run, flip-floppers, etc.

The democrats don't need a slogan, they need a democratic president. Before they can get that, they need a democratic candidate to come up with a policy for the Middle East. Mr Bush's policy, "Killing For Democracy" is certainly successful on the killing part, but not so much on the democracy side.

Mr. Alter goes on to talk about the republican's strength when it comes to security and that somehow al Qaeda being in Iraq is a positive for the republicans.

Last week's attack on what remained of the Golden Mosque in Samarra—one of the most revered shrines of Iraq's Shiites—was apparently another sign that the organization known as Al Qaeda in Iraq remains a serious threat.

Yes, it does, it also reminds everyone what an abject failure George Bush and the republicans have been. Their incompetence and lack of planning allowed al Qaeda to come into the security vacuum they helped to create. In the so-called liberal media abject failure equals being strong on security.

The problems the democrats face cannot be cured by a slogan, but a slogan would help when you have journalists and commentators like Alter who have short attention spans. Alter's motto and what he requires to understand complex issues would seem to be, "KISS, Keep It Simple, Stupid."

The democrats already have their slogan, "Between Iraq and a Hard Place".

Jim Martin