Democrats play puerile partisan politics over war and peace

With US forces in combat across the Middle East, top Democrats are obsessed with . . . messaging for the midterm elections.

Disgraceful.

OK: No elected official is obliged to support President Donald Trump’s decision to permanently eliminate the Iranian threat before it’s too late; that question is no litmus test of patriotism.

But automatically opposing it, simply because it was Trump’s decision, is contemptible.

And undermining our servicemen and -women while they fight, and the nation’s security, is despicable.

Yet there’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer telling the Senate: “Do you stand with the American people who are exhausted with forever wars in the Middle East or stand with Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth as they bumble us headfirst into another war?”

Bumble? Operation Epic Fury’s planning and early execution has been flawless — decapitating the enemy leadership in the opening strike, rapidly devastating Iran’s missile and drone capabilities and attaining complete air superiority within days.

Forever war? Mission creep is always a risk, yet the US high command clearly has no intention of sending in ground troops, let alone occupying Iran.

And Trump is the one who put the phrase “forever wars” at the center of US foreign-policy debates of the last decade.

Less than a year ago, by the way, Schumer was contemptuously suggesting, “TACO Trump is already folding on Iran”; now attacking Iran is “immoral and illegal.” 

What about President Barack Obama bombing for regime change in Libya, or Bill Clinton’s same in Serbia?

Meanwhile, Schumer’s House counterpart, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, announced Monday that the prez had launched “an all-out war in the Middle East at the same period of time where Donald Trump and his administration, and Republicans, have cut more than a trillion dollars from Medicaid.”

Sure sounds like he’s accusing the prez of hitting Iran purely to distract the public from . . . Democrats’ midterm-campaign talking points.

Jeffries also complains, “Trump and Republican extremists are willing to spend billions to bomb Iran,” yet “have done nothing to bring down grocery prices.”

Funny: He didn’t complain about the $200 billion President Joe Biden (quite rightly!) spent supporting Ukraine, even though Biden’s policies sent grocery prices soaring.

Yesterday we slammed Gov. Gavin Newsom, Dems’ leading 2028 candidate, for using US-Israeli cooperation on Iran as an excuse for smearing Israel as an “apartheid state,” but he’s also part of the chorus insisting that Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu somehow tricked Trump into launching Epic Fury — apparently because Bibi wants to distract his voters, since “he’s got his own domestic issues. He’s trying to stay out of jail. He’s got an election coming up.”

Notice: We’re not bothering to censure Reps. Ilhan Omar or Rashida Tlaib etc. here; it’s the “mainstream” Democrats (with a few honorable exceptions like Pennsylvania’s Sen. John Fetterman) whose behavior appalls us.

This isn’t principled opposition to — nor healthy democratic scrutiny of — the president’s bold actions; it’s treating an epic matter of war and peace as a fit target for puerile partisan politics.