By a vote of 67 to 29 yesterday, the Senate rejected Senator Russ Feingold’s attempt to defund the War and our troops in Iraq. Among the 29 who voted to cut and run were Senator Clinton, who voted for the war in 2002, and Senator Obama, who was not in the Senate in 2002. Senate Amendment 1098 reads, in part:

“TRANSITION OF MISSION.– The President shall promptly transition the mission of United States forces in Iraq … redeployment shall begin not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act … No funds appropriated or otherwise made available under any provision of law may be obligated or expended to continue the deployment in Iraq of members of the United States Armed Forces after March 31, 2008…”

This is the complete list of Senators who voted to defund our troops in Iraq and their mission:

Akaka (D-HI)
Biden (D-DE)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Obama (D-IL)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

This morning, in the New York Post:

“Your soldiers are in our hands … What you are doing in searching for [them] will lead to nothing but exhaustion and headaches,” said the online statement from the Islamic State of Iraq – one of al Qaeda’s Iraqi incarnations.

The warning recalls Pelosi’s words from 2006; she said she felt “sad” over President Bush’s insistence that al Qaeda is operating in Iraq.

Or Reid, who recently called on the president to “change course [away from Iraq] and turn our attention back to the war on al Qaeda and their allies.”

For the Democrats, the War on Terror should be waged exclusively outside Iraq’s borders. What’s happening in Baghdad and Anbar province, they maintain, is nothing more than a Sunni-Shiite civil war – one from which America must cut and run.

All the current Democrat Party’s candidates for President and, minus a very few, those in Congress would disengage from the al Qaeda in Iraq. It is all too much. The enemy keeps counter-attacking, the war is so brutal, and our side also suffers casualties.

The real war is where the enemy is yet, for the Democrats, it is like the 1960’s all over again. They cannot get slogans like “What if there was a war and nobody came?” out of their heads.

Our leaving Iraq will not end the sectarian violence and the al Qaeda will not just go away. Our enemies fight wherever they find targets of opportunity — wherever they find us.

In the War on Terror, there is no place to run from here.

Taking the fight to the enemy is more than a theory. While our enemies know that, the Democrats running for election next year and now running the House and the Senate remain in a state of denial.