Neocon, the responsibility of those in power and those aspiring to power is not to mute their criticism. When the most important questions revolve around the issue of whether sending our young men and women to die and kill for a cause is justified, a full and passionate debate is required. The American public is entitled to know the position of the candidates and also the depths of their beliefs. While an undesired side effect of that process is that the "enemy" may take heart from divisions within our country, that is the cost of a form of government that encourages and is based upon open debate and the free exchange of ideas.
We did not lose the war in Vietnam. It was winnable only by wiping out most of the population of South and North Vietnam. We made a pretty good start but we didn't have the inhumanity to endorse the "final solution" to that mess. We spent huge amounts of money and the lives of 55,000 men and women who were unwilling or unable to avoid serving in an empty cause. That showed a lot of will but in the end any rational cost-benefit analysis of that war showed clearly that we were fools to start it, fools to increase it's scope and fools to continue it long after it was clear that we would never "win" it. Those that worried that we would show a "lack of will" by declaring victory and getting out forgot the old maxim; it's sometimes better to take smaller losses than to ignore the realities and take bigger losses.
In Iraq we have ample evidence that those that oppose us are willing to spend their lives in support of their beliefs. How many Iraqis have stood up and declared their "love" for democracy by risking their lives. The only ones I've seen are those that are getting paid to do so. The Iraqi on the street may support us passively, but not at the expense of his life. That should tell us something.
In effect what we have done is remove a dictatorial regime that had a fear and hatred of Islamic fundamentalists that rivaled or exceeded our own. By removing that regime and failing to anticipate that there was no Iraqi movement to fill in the power vacuum, we've created a breeding ground for terrorists. Moreover, and more tragically, we've moved our own troops into that void. The effect is that we've created an ambush site, moved our troops into it, and created a killing ground that we cannot clear.
If you want to find the main reason for why the terrorists across the globe and in the Mideast are taking heart, look no farther than that. They are making mincemeat of the mighty Americans using homemade bombs, AK 47s and a few more sophisticated weapons. They are becoming heros to the local populations and like all underdogs, they are becoming larger than life.
It's not enough to say that we "need to stay the course in Iraq because to fail is untenable," we need to look at why and how WE CREATED an ambush like that and then moved our troops right into the middle of it with no way out. In the end, as with many of the "untenable" situations people get themselves into, we will get out if we cannot stay. Mark my words, we CANNOT STAY unless the local population that supports US, is as numerous and as determined as the local population that is willing to die to oppose us. |
