Sunday, October 09, 2005
Resolve is the only weapon that matters
Here we have the U.S.A. and Great Britain and their smaller friends, an alliance that has defeated Nazi Germany and the mighty Reich, and have had the stomach to obliterate Japanese cities with atomic bombs. Here we have the Americans, the descendants of those who wrested a whole continent by shear obstinacy and fought for every inch of land with blood and sweat. Here we have nations that have waded through rivers of blood and mud and marched through entire continents to become symbols of human perseverance and enterprise. Yes all this history and yet we have some who think that our miserable "Sunni Triangle" poses an insurmountable problem and that one should "cut and run" and "bring home troops immediately" etc. etc.
I salute President Bush who does not care much for this kind of defeatism and treats it with the contempt it deserves. (emphasis in original)
Indeed.
As I have written before (in a much longer post that praises some forms of anti-war dissent):
A civil insurgency such as the one raging in the Sunni Triangle of Iraq cannot defeat the United States, in the sense of vanquishing its armed forces. It is perfectly within the capacity of our country to spend $80 billion a year on this war and suffer perhaps 1000 fatalities a year ad infinitum. The insurgency can therefore have only two victory conditions. First, to shape the political circumstances of post-war Iraq. Second, to induce the United States and the rest of the coalition to withdraw from Iraq (some insurgents would probably be happy to see this result under any circumstances, but al Qaeda wants humiliation to accompany the withdrawal). It is therefore manifestly the case that to the extent that anti-war dissent achieves those of its objectives that require an American withdrawal, the domestic opponents of the war have helped the enemy achieve at least the second of these victory conditions. And, since American withdrawal would probably (although not necessarily) increase the political leverage of the insurgency, it might also help the enemy achieve its first victory condition. How can it be otherwise?
Of the various reasons to withdraw from Iraq, there are none more contemptible than those that cite the costs of this war, which are trivial as against the size of the United States and the wars of our history. The only question is whether the counterinsurgency in Iraq remains productive geopolitically. Regular readers know that I think that it is.
CWCID: Ace of Spades HQ.
UPDATE: William Shawcross:
IT SEEMS UNLIKELY that many of the so-called peace marchers who trooped through Washington and London two weekends back listened on Thursday — at least not with an open mind or sympathy — to George Bush's cogent explanation of why coalition troops are fighting and dying in Iraq.
You did not see in those demonstrations, after all, many banners reading, "Support Iraq's New Constitution," "No to Jihad" or "Stop Suicide Bombers." The crimes committed daily against the Iraqi people by other Arabs who wish to re-enslave them seem to be of little interest to Michael Moore, Jane Fonda and their followers. Rage against the daily assaults on children, women, anyone, by Islamo-fascists and ordinary national fascists is not fashionable. Only alleged American crimes are cool to decry.
It's hard to think of a more graphic illustration of the horror the U.S.-led coalition is fighting in Iraq than the mass murder on Sept. 26, in which terrorists disguised as policemen (a New York Times headline called these butchers "fighters") burst into a primary school in Iskandaria, south of Baghdad, seized five teachers (all Shiites) and shot them dead. Children stood weeping through this atrocity.
Why do crimes like this make so little impression on those Americans and Europeans who want the coalition to abandon Iraq? The demonstrators think of themselves as moral, but it is hard to think of any policy more amoral than abandoning Iraq to such an enemy....
One of the most publicized new icons of the U.S. peace movement, grieving mother Cindy Sheehan, has attracted attention in the vibrant new media that have grown in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. All the Iraqis I know totally disagree with her public declarations that her son died for nothing. Those fighting the coalition approve and exploit her words.
"Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia," as the Islamo-fascists in Iraq call themselves, understands Western doubt and self-criticism. Its members are trying to create an impression of a country submerged in bloody chaos. They want to convince a world where understanding comes only from brief television images that Iraq has gone to hell. That is a lie.
Whatever one thinks of the decision to invade Iraq or the effectiveness of the postwar administration, there is no question that our sworn enemy al Qaeda is there. Whatever one thinks of Sunni Iraqi nationalism, we are fighting in Iraq -- among others -- an enemy that declared war on the United States in 1998 (for those who need a legal justification). Whatever the future development of Iraq's political system, and we hope that it is humane whether it allocates power to the center or the periphery, we cannot retreat from the battlefield we share with al Qaeda.
3 Comments:
By 
JAF, at
Sun Oct 09, 10:59:00 PM:
Excellent Post, TigerHawk.
I tried to trackback, but it didn't work. Never the less, I check your blog once a day.
By Don Singleton, at
Mon Oct 10, 11:23:00 AM:
JAF, I was able to successfully trackback http://donsingleton.blogspot.com/2005/10/peace-is-not-answer.html using HaloScan
By 
, at
Mon Oct 10, 05:12:00 PM:
I have trouble with any analysis which confines problems to the Sunni insurgency. Yes this disrupts the country and gathers headlines.
But we also have the increasingly strong Iranian/ Shia militia ties in the south and in government, a terrible corruption, crime including murder and kidnapping of horrible dimensions, an economy which is flattening way too soon based on the inefficiences of the previous regime, an infrastructure which is also stagnating.
A few of these types of problems have been enough to cripple third world development in many places.
On a larger scale Iran is entering into closer alliances wth Russia and China through SCO which includes several central Asian nations. The Sauds and other Suni governments believe the Iraqi Sunnis are oppressed and we can expect consequences. A lesser, but also important alienation is common among other allies.
So when someone states the problem is primarily the Sunni insurgency, and typically associates it with foreign Arabs one senses some one who is not concerned with dealing with a complex situation, but persuading domestic US opinion.
This problem has occured from the beginning as we gloated over victory after victory while failing to focus on real problems. It has done far more to undermine the effort than all the leftist peace marchers.
