IRONY OF THE YEAR: You've probably seen the latest headline from the Drudgereport quoting House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as saying:
'I have absolutely no regret about my vote (against) this war. The same questions remain. The cost in human lives, the cost to our budget, probably 100 billion. We could have probably brought down that statue for a lot less."
Think about how foolish and naive this statement is for a moment and then think about this:
Tomorrow night, amid great pomp and circumstance at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, Nancy Pelosi will receive an award. It's called the Alan Cranston Peace Award, named after the former liberal Democratic Senator from California, and it's bestowed annually by the inaptly-named Global Security Institute to "visionary leaders … who, through their efforts, have advanced the opportunities to eliminate the unacceptable dangers posed by nuclear weapons."
It's a parody that almost defies belief. While American soldiers who haven't bathed or slept in days continue risking their lives in Iraq to make the world a safer place, Pierce Brosnan and the rest of the peace-at-all-costs crowd will be sipping their chardonnay and nibbling on their $250 per plate dinners, toasting Ms. Pelosi's courage and dedication to the cause of strengthening US security. "She has led in working to eliminate the threat of weapons of mass destruction by working to eliminate the weapons themselves," said Jonathan Granoff, President of the Global Security Institute.
The irony is deep and rich on many levels. Cranston, who founded GSI after leaving the Senate in 1992, was tireless in his efforts to rid the world of nuclear weapons which he felt were and are, to use his words, "unworthy of civilization." A noble and well-intentioned goal to be sure.
The problem with Cranston, Pelosi and many on the antiwar left isn't necessarily that they don't see the potential threat of WMD's (although some certainly don't) but that they can't face up to making the tough choices required to deal with the threat effectively. Here is Cranston speaking in an interview April 17, 2000, just months before his death:
"It's quite possible that if there isn't an accidental launch that could lead to a conflict, terrorists or representatives of rogue leaders like Saddam Hussein will buy or steal or bribe their way to acquire a nuclear weapon out of Russia, and that they will then have no hesitation in using it. And they won't attack us with a missile. They would attack us, as Ambassador Robert Gallucci has suggested, by sailing one bomb into San Francisco harbor or Baltimore harbor or New York harbor on a ship just sitting there. No way to know it's there. No missile has penetrated us to put it there. There it is."
This is exactly one of the threats that George W. Bush acted upon. It's one of the threats that Nancy Pelosi voted against addressing in a direct and effective way last year - the vote she is still so proud of even to this day. If GSI is truly interested in honoring "visionary leaders" dedicated to the cause of peace and security, they'd do well to give the award to President Bush instead.