Today is my first turn at sharing the Daily Commentary chores in our publisher’s absence. Since Jon is thousands of miles away in Great Britain, I’m going to step outside of my usual Orange County bailiwick and comment about the senatorship of Barbara Boxer – the nightmare from which we cannot awaken. Like many California conservatives, Election Night in November 1992 is probably the darkest night of my political night. That was the night Bruce Herschensohn narrowly lost the U.S. Senate contest to that screech owl of the Left, Barbara Boxer.

Sen. Boxer provides us with regular reminders of how much California and the nation lost when she, and not Bruce Herschensohn, was elected to the world greatest deliberative body. The most recent example was Boxer’s vote to require a pull-out of U.S. troops from Iraq by the end-of-this year (this defeatist resolution allowed "only forces that are critical to completing the mission of standing up Iraqi security forces" to remain in 2007 – meaningless fig-leaf to protect Boxer and her five Senate comrades from charges of abandoning Iraq to the Islamists).

The real effect of this failed resolution supported Boxer would have to been to simplify the planning process of our enemies in by saying: “Hey guys! No need to guess as to whether or when we will pull American troops out of . We’ll be gone by end of the year. Devise your campaign to destroy the Iraqi democracy accordingly.”

While the Founding Fathers assigned the conduct of foreign policy to the executive branch of government, they also designed the Senate to function as the foreign policy half of the legislative branch. Smaller, more deliberative and less susceptible to popular passions than the House (since Senators were originally elected by state legislatures), it was the Senate that entrusted with the ratification or rejection of treaties.

As such, it behooves us to elect Senators who understand and appreciate the lessons of history. While Bruce Herschensohn continues to exemplify that quality in spades, Boxer’s latest vote is a painful reminder she has learned nothing during 13 years in the U.S. Senate. Her understanding of warfare and foreign policy remains hostage to her anti-Vietnam War activism.

Hence, she doesn’t understand what history teaches so clearly. Insurgencies fail. Whether during
the Roman Empire or the 21st Century, guerrilla warfare is doomed to failure because of the occupying power’s overwhelming superiority in manpower, training, supplies and soldiery. As long as the occupying power maintains the will the prevail, insurgencies will eventually peter out because they cannot maintain the level of recruitment, funding, weapons procurement and level of activity against an occupying power that will always have more of the above.

That is why insurgents pay such close attention to the domestic public opinion of their enemies.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.