Iraq and Reconstruction: A Better Fit than the Vietnam Analogy

Andrew Cline nails the coffin shut on the Left's ridiculous Iraq War arguments:

Exposing left-wing hypocrisy on Iraq is as easy as uttering three little words: "What about Reconstruction?"

Despite the obvious success of Sunday's election, the anti-war left is sticking to its script, which says the election is illegitimate because it was conducted under American "occupation" and because the group most closely associated with the old ruling class (the Sunnis) did not fully participate.

But precisely the same thing can be said about the American South during Reconstruction. Yet as the left calls the Iraq election a "sham" and a "farce," you would be hard pressed to find a liberal anywhere who would use the same terms to describe the election of America's first black legislators, congressmen, senators and governors.

Few people know that the first black senators served during Reconstruction---in fact, the very first black senator took Jefferson Davis' seat in the Senate. This was a direct result of the disenfranchisement and refusal to vote on the part of Southern men. Do you really think John Kerry's going to be pushing for these pioneering men to be excluded from the Senate rolls ex post facto due to the "illegitimacy" of the elections which seated them? He'd eat his Magic Hat first!

Eric Foner is a Marxist and an historian. Despite his ridiculous and discredited political views, Foner has written what I consider to be the finest history of the Reconstruction era. It is very much worth your time to read.