DEMOCRATS AT DELPHI

A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.

For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murder is less to fear. 

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) spoke those words in the Roman Senate over two thousand years ago.  But his words could be addressed to Traitor John Murtha and the leadership of the Democrat Party today.

They have bet on America's defeat in Iraq.  Somehow they believe that their country's defeat will bring them personal victory in 2008 – retaining and expanding their control of Congress and regaining the White House.

It's not going to work out that way.  A nationwide poll taken earlier this month shows that a significant majority of Americans do not want us to lose in Iraq – they want victory. 

It's going to turn out that the Democrat strategy will achieve defeat – theirs.  Root for defeat and you'll get it – yours.

What is infuriating Traitor John and Pelosi Galore right now is that Bush's hated "surge" is succeeding.  The surge hadn't even started when the main Shia terrorist and Iranian stooge, Moqtada al-Sadr, fled in fear to Tehran with his wife and commanders late last month. 

Mookie's "Mahdi Army" has been shut down, his murderous militiamen are off the streets, and best of all, Mookie's headquarters was seized earlier this month.  US and Iraqi troops have found a treasure trove of documents and info.

This is a major victory against the principal Shia terrorist group in Baghdad.  Concurrently, there's been a major drop off in attacks by Sunni death squads.  The death toll in the last two weeks since the surge began has dropped 70%.  Hundreds of Sunni terrorists and would-be suicide bombers have been arrested at the scores of new checkpoints in the city.  Hundreds more have been killed in gun battles.  Dozens of terrorist safe houses have been raided. 

The media, of course, only publicizes the bombers and attacks that are successful.  Good news is anathema to them as they are partners-in-treason with the Dems.  That's why they won't report what Marine officers in Baghdad are saying privately (who don't have clearance to say it publicly): 

The Sunni terrorists have lost the war on the ground.  They are only fighting a "media war" now, setting off the occasional car bomb to get the media's attention.  The Shia terrorists have given up.  AQI (Al Qaeda in Iraq) leaders and fighters have left the city. The Battle of Baghdad is close to being won.

What a nightmare – for the Dems.

The clincher securing victory, however, may not be military action but a legal document.  The Iraqi Parliament is finally nearing resolution on the "Oil Law" that decides how Iraq's oil reserves and revenues from them will be divided.

A principal cause of Sunni terrorism is the fear that this division will leave them out of the spoils, since the country's oil fields are in either Shia or Kurdish territory.  New discoveries, reported this week (2/18) in the New York Times – Iraq Sunni Lands Show New Oil and Gas Promise – changes that.

As it dawns on the Sunni Arabs that there are scores of billions of barrels of oil and a trillion cubic feet of natural gas under their own feet – which can make them rich if there's peace enough to get it out of the ground, their insurgency is over.

Couple this with the tribal alliance between the chiefs of most all Sunni tribes in Western Iraq (Anbar Province, where the new oil and gas is) to rid their region of foreign Al Qaeda terrorists, and you can see there's clear cause for optimism.  Or pessimism if you're a Dem.

The war in Iraq is far from over.  Victory is not assured.  That can only come with finality through regime change in Iran.  Yet it's on the horizon.  So let me tell you a story, a lesson from ancient Greece.

It is of the richest and most powerful king in the Greek world.  His name was Croesus (596-544? BC), ruler of Lydia in what is now western Turkey.  One day he was visited by a legendary wise man named Solon (638-558 BC – one of those known to history as the Seven Sages of Greece*) at his capital of Sardis.

After showing Solon examples of his fabulous wealth and luxury, Croesus asked Solon who he thought was the happiest man in the world.  Solon thought for a moment, then said he was a peasant in a village near Athens who loved his wife and family, was loved by them in return, worked hard and honestly all his life, and died peacefully surrounded by his loved ones.

Croesus was insulted and demanded of Solon why he was not named instead of some peasant.  "Because your life is not yet over," Solon calmly replied.

In the meantime, a threat loomed in the east, the new Empire of Persia being built by Cyrus the Great (590-530 BC).  The border between Lydia and Persia was the Halys River.  Croesus decided to attack first.  For advice and counsel, he traveled to the Oracle of Delphi, where for sufficient remuneration, the priestess known as the Pythia would reveal the prophecy of the gods.

The riches of Croesus were the greatest ever brought to Delphi.  The Lydian King was sure he would receive a positive blessing.  The Pythia sat in her tripod suspended over a fissure in the rocks, breathed the sacred pneuma or vapors emanating from them (now determined to be ethylene gas that can induce hallucinations), and shrieked in a strange tongue.

The other priestesses then translated the message from the gods:  "If Croesus crosses the Halys, he will destroy a mighty kingdom."

So it was with confidence that Croesus returned to Sardis and led his army across the Halys into Persia –  where it was met and annihilated by Cyrus.  Croesus had destroyed a mighty kingdom – his own.

Cyrus placed Croesus on an execution funeral pyre.  As the flames rose around him, Croesus called out "Solon!"  Cyrus ordered the flames be put out and asked what Croesus meant.  Recounting the sage's advice and his hubris at Delphi, Croesus concluded, "I should have listened to Solon for the peasant's life was far better than mine."

So impressed was Cyrus that he spared Croesus' life and made him his trusted councilor.

The Democrats are in Delphi, assured by the hallucinating moonbat priests and priestesses of Daily Kos and Moveon.org that the prophecies of America's glorious defeat will come true.  Their own defeat awaits them on the other side of the Halys on election day.  There will be no Cyrus among the voters to spare their electoral lives.  Such are the wages of hubris and treason.

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*The full list of the Seven Sages of Ancient Greece (7^th-6^th centuries BC):  Solon of Athens, Chilon of Sparta, Thales of Miletus, Bias of Priene, Cleobulus of Lindos, Pittacus of Mitylene, Periander of Corinth.