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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (229190)	5/1/2007 12:18:29 AM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

Because we can't stop them. You cannot stop an insurgency. You can be so repressive that you tamp it down, but any let up in repression will fire it up again. So Nadine, what exactly do you want? How long do you want to stay, and what do you expect to get for your time? Of course insurgencies can be stopped. The French stopped the insurgency in Algeria, then were betrayed by the defeatists in Paris. The British stopped the insurgency in Malaysia. Insurgencies are like other wars. They can be won, they can be lost, they can come to a negotiated settlement or simply peter out through exhaustion. There is no one rule for them. To say "You cannot stop an insurgency" is just part of the simplistic notion current among the left that there is no option but defeat. But then most of the left has been rooting for defeat in Iraq from day one. Anytime anything went right, they swore. Oh no, we can't have Bush be justified! Anything but that! You ask what do I want? At this point, I want the US to stay until it becomes clear that the US Army has figured out how to fight this insurgency to a standstill, for the sake of future deterrence, and the rest of the Middle East has grudingly admitted that the Americans have staying power. Because if the Americans have staying power, it removes one pillar of Al Qaeda's argument - that the Americans are soft and tire easily, and smaller forces can easily harass them into running away. Make no mistake, what is going on in Iraq is not just an insurgency, in the sense of a local rebellion. Al Qaeda has declared Iraq a main front in their global jihad. They will follow us if we run away. If we sent Marines into Darfur tomorrow, as many on the left wish, Al Qaeda suicide bombers would be there on the day after.