Your post is a joke, right? At the beginning you say that you will be impressed when you see evidence of success, although many things have gone right in a year, and we have yet to see the upshot of the current operations, but you finish by admonishing me to be patient, and to realize that the fight against terrorism is a marathon.
One of the most impressive things about the recent agitation is how limited it is. Neither the insurgents in Falladjah nor Al- Sadr have widespread support, demonstrating the limitations of the thesis that we are exponentially creating enemies. In fact, lacking either a census base or a means of measuring increase, we have no idea how our actions have affected recruitment, or if they are dying off or being apprehended faster than they can be trained.
The almost universal experience of males, including American males, as they grow up is that if they show weakness, they become the target of bullies, and that only fighting back will stop the harassment. You have your theories about what will curtail the insurgency, and the regional resort to terror, and I have mine. Mine is based on such experiences, as well as a wide reading in history. Although I was large for my age, and built like a football player, I was a bookworm and braniac, very polite and softspoken, and therefore a natural target for greasers. I was tormented off and on, especially in gym class, until I started fighting back. Suddenly, the fact that I was a big guy counted more than the fact that I was a smart guy, and they steered clear. I started backing bullies off of other kids, too, and it worked. Someone known to be under my protection had a marked decrease in harassment. As I said, my readings in history have tended to confirm me in this view, namely, that those who are inclined to make themselves bigger or get what they want through intimidation and violence prey on those who do not fight back, primarily, and that they lose heart if they encounter strong opposition.
You may ask if this applies to suicide bombers. My speculation, which is at least as good as yours, is that it does, because no one wants to commit suicide for a futile cause. Thus, convince them they cannot prevail, and most of them will stop.
The only way that the Iraqis could "go where their religion, culture, and history leads them" is if they were not imprisoned by Saddam Hussein, but could interact in a fairly normal way. Thus, our intervention was essential to jump starting the process.
The "mission" has not changed at all. Only details of implementation of changed, with emerging circumstances.
The bottom line is that things are going pretty well, subject to the usual uncertainties of human endeavor, and any judgment against the intervention is at best premature....... |
