The Baker Boys Proposal

Strong words from Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, on last night's Kudlow & Company:

I think unfortunately it has the makings of a prescription for defeat. I call it the Iraq Surrender Group because I think what you see at the core, wrapped around language of defeatism, is a plan for trying to extricate the United States from Iraq with the help of Iran and Syria--as you say, our archenemies.

The likelihood that Iran, which has made it clear in the words of its president, that it seeks a world without America, that it seeks to wipe Israel off the map--that these guys, who have done as much as anybody to destabilize Iraq and to make it impossible, if they could, for us to have a secure, stable, functioning country there, let alone a democracy--are going to help us in any way is, I think, not only silly, but reckless. And that's why I think it is going to lead to a strategic defeat for this country if these proposals were to be adopted.

It comes down to this: Punish your friends and reward your enemies. That's exactly backwards. We should be making it clear that if you stand with the United States, if you stand for the things we do, you get our loyal and long-standing support. You're not going to have us abandoning you.

And if you are our enemy, if you're killing Americans in Iraq as the Iranians are, if you're trying to take over Lebanon as the Iranians are, if you're building nuclear weapons with a threat to destroy Israel as the Iranians are, and you say, as a stated policy of your president, that you want to bring about a world without America, that's not something you're going to be rewarded for.

Stability in Iraq is all well and good to talk about, but the Iranians want it on Iranian terms. And that means a loss for us, a loss for Israel, a loss for Iraqi people, for freedom in the world, and I think it is a terrible mistake.