There’s one question about the Iraq War that Democrats can’t answer, or even confront:

  Is this struggle a deeply significant historical confrontation, or just a silly waste of effort, blood and resources?

   If the war is important, how can we afford to lose?

   And if it’s just a distraction, then why do its critics focus so obsessively on the issue--- with all the overheated rhetoric about the “biggest mistake” and “greatest disaster” in US history?

   In other words, how will history remember this war? Is it a turning point of some kind, a hugely important episode that overshadows lesser issues in politics?

   Or is it simply a political football, with both sides playing games to try to gain partisan advantage, with no huge security consequences for either success or failure on the field of battle?

   The Vietnam War unquestionably represented a huge event in our history – claiming 58,000 American lives (when our population was more than 30% smaller than today), wrecking the economy, helping provoke urban riots and campus shutdowns and forcing the total restructuring of our military (away from reliance on the draft). The Asian consequences of the war received eloquent (and accurate) treatment earlier this week by the President of the United States. All in all, we associate Vietnam with a terrible time in our history – an era of punishing inflation, collapsing US influence, Communist advance, skyrocketing crime, racial extremism, violent radical movements in the US, and so forth.

   Making the case that the Iraq War has wrought the same kind of havoc on this generation is not only difficult, but impossible. Even if we fought for three more years, with the same rate of battlefield death we’ve so far endured (God forbid), we’d only then reach 10% of the human cost of Vietnam….more like 7% as a percentage of our population. The economy has hardly been wrecked --- by a ration of more than 3 to one, respondents told the latest Harris Poll that their personal situation has “improved” in the last five years, and 94% express satisfaction (with 56% VERY satisfied) regarding their private status. The Treasury Department yesterday reported another decline in the federal budget deficit (far greater decline than predicted)—to a mere 1.2% of GDP, nearing historic lows.

   So if the war is so devastating, such a disaster for us, why is the country in such great shape, with the US safe from major assault on our shores ever since 9/11?

   Isn’t it obvious that the reason the Democrats focus with such ferocity on Iraq as “the defining issue of our time” is not even that they believe it --- but because they know that with all the good news surrounding our country, their concentration on Iraq is the only way they can sustain their cherished mantra of Bush as “the worst president in history” who has, allegedly, ruined everything?

   In a shockingly optimistic nation (by nine to one, Harris Poll respondents expect even more improvement in the next five years) the Dems need Iraq as a symbol of failure and incompetence for their political purposes – regardless of progress on the ground.