The essay linked below is one very carefully thought-out and well composed article. The writer elucidates vividly the protracted and horrifying disaster that awaits if we just bail out on the Iraqi citizens, as espoused by leftist Democrats like Reid, Pelosi, Hillary and Obama. Any of them, if (heaven forbid) ascendant to higher office, soon will discover that this situation is not another Vietnam, nor does it bear even a fleeting resemblance. The writer describes quite well why this is so.
Interestingly, the author is a Democrat — but here’s the key — a Lieberman style (conservative) Democrat. He actually has some foresight, unlike the more famous members of his party who are radical wackos (Pelosi, E. Kennedy) or worse, extremists masquerading as moderates when convenient (Obama, Hillary).
It’s also rather long, so if you decide to read it, set aside 15 minutes or so.
The Crisis of the Islamo-Fascist War from the “Ornery American” at Civilization Watch
I’ve had a lot of thoughts the past few years about the Iraq war and how it needs to be carried out, but haven’t yet put them to coherent written form. This essay comes very close to doing exactly that; the disagreements between its writer and me are few and are exceedingly trivial.
Thanks “bc” for bringing it to my attention.
p.s., OBTW and for the record…
Though I’ve got disappointments with his handling of what turned out to be bad pre-war intel, and with his shockingly liberal fiscal record, I would vote for GW Bush again — both times, without the least hesitation — given the utterly pathetic alternatives that were available! If nothing else, his socially conservative long-term legacy on the Supreme Court with John Roberts and Sam Alito made those votes worthwhile.
kscharf says
Well that was a wasted 15 minutes…more of the same tripe that has been proven wrong again and again and again and again. I do admire the author’s sticking with his fantasy land down to the bitter end, though. Blaming the problems on the “librul” media and an incoherent message from the White House is nothing more than ridiculous wishful thinking and blame shifting. It’s actually becoming somewhat comic in a tragic way seeing these chickenhawks try to save face.
Look, it’s clear what happened here and it has nothing to do with the media (who were in the administration’s lap during the ‘shock and awe’ and ’embedded with the troops’ days). The majority in Iraq are Shia, and they don’t like Sunnis (especially after Saddam’s rule). Iran knows this and sent in AQ operatives during the unstable days after Saddam fell. Their goal was to destabilize conditions and it worked. Meanwhile all the former Iraqi military and police, young men now without jobs due to debaathification, could do every day was to try to find food for their families and keep them safe from violent crime. Being the minority in the country these Sunnis had to fight back. This opened the door for a popular Shia leader, anti-US and in the back pocket of Iran, to take the lead quelling the Sunnis, and his name is Al-Sadr. It helps that he has contacts within the Sunnis, so he can have more success brokering “peace” between the two parties, strengthening his position. Now he’s turned the majority against the “occupiers” and he rules with force. Essentially we opened the door for a Shia majority’s version of Saddam who is now an ally of Iran. Big winner: Iran.
No one that I know of (except maybe this author) bothers to deny any more than the administration had no coherent plan for post-war Iraq and are now just stabbing around in the dark. This has led us into this situation where at this point we CAN’T “win”, we can only hope to save face and work to stabilize things the best we can. The fact is, there is no “crossroads” in the Iraq war. As soon as Bush pulled the trigger without having a realistic post-war plan, we were committed to this ONLY road. Of course those within the administration who raised red flags about the post-war plan during the early stages were dismissed and those outside the administration were branded “un-American”. This will be Bush’s legacy, but I’m sure he can find solace in the 18% who still somehow think he’s handling the situation well.