A New York Times story on John Edwards today includes this quote:

“We have an epic fight in front of us, and anybody who thinks that’s not true is living in a fantasy world,” Mr. Edwards said. “How long are we going to let insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies run this country? Every time this has happened in our country, the American people have risen up and taken action.”

This statement is revealing of Edwards and his party’s mindset these days. We do in fact have an epic fight in front of us—but the fight is with militant Islam, not insurance and pharmaceutical companies. One need not be a defender of these industries to realize that Edwards’s quote captures, in a nutshell, the reason why he and those in his party leadership are not ready for prime time when it comes to waging and winning this war. For one thing, many of them are reluctant to call this conflict a war; more importantly, they are unwilling to treat it as one. Virtually every policy change they advocate would amount to a retreat in this struggle, and the effect would be to help al Qaeda and the worldwide jihadist movement.

There are real enemies we face in the world. They are as remorseless and brutal an enemy as any we have ever faced. It’s a pity that John Edwards seems unaware of all this and has, instead, gone in search of all the wrong ones.

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