Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters of California bemoaned the House debate on supporting the U.S. war effort this past week as a stunt by Republicans to make Democrats look unpatriotic.

Why bother, when Democrats are doing such a stellar job of it themselves?

Democrats are now officially the only people in the world who actually think the U.S.-led coalition isn't winning.

We're not making this up, folks.

"Stay and we'll pay," proclaimed Rep. John Murtha, D-Penn.

"This war is a failed policy of the Bush administration," wailed House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, also of California. "We need a new direction in Iraq."

That's funny: A new direction by U.S. forces is what al-Qaida leaders want, too. They know what seems to be totally lost on Democrats: that the U.S. coalition is routing the terrorists.

That's not a matter of opinion. It's fact: Records seized after the coalition's masterful strike on al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi clearly show the terrorists themselves in a full-blown panic and desperately looking for ways to keep their insurgency alive.

A document found in al-Zarqawi's hideout calls the terrorists' situation "bleak" and in "crisis."

We've got the enemy on the run. And an alarming number of Democrats want us to retreat.

Indeed, on the House resolution supporting the troops, acknowledging that Iraq is part of the war on terror and opposing a specific pullout date, a whopping 149 Democrats stood in opposition. Unbelievable.

"A grotesque mistake," is how Pelosi termed the war after voting against supporting the troops.

Democrats in the House didn't much like the GOP maneuver to get them on record about the war, which is several years old and is still being debated on that side of the aisle. They complain it's playing politics with the election.

What? Politics? Before an election? Perish the thought!

But what Democrats are doing is beyond despicable: They're playing politics with the war. Pelosi - who would become speaker of the House if Democrats take over next year - is actually portraying, to the entire world, a winning war effort as a losing one.

Unpatriotic? You decide.