Blue Crab Boulevard

“I’d Like To See It Through.”

The words of SGT Jonathan Kirkendall of the 2nd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, in today's Washington Post. He's talking about Iraq, of course. That's where he and a number of other soldiers were interviewed . And they want to finish it the right way, not by pulling out and triggering a bloodbath. They can see what will happen even if our chattering left and those Democrats who cater to them refuse to admit it.

With a potentially historic U.S. midterm election on Tuesday and the war in Iraq a major issue at the polls, many soldiers said the United States should not abandon its effort here. Such a move, enlisted soldiers and officers said, would set Iraq on a path to civil war, give new life to the insurgency and create the possibility of a failed state after nearly four years of fighting to implant democracy.

"Take us out of that vacuum — and it's on the edge now — and boom, it would become a free-for-all," said Lt. Col. Mark Suich, who commands the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment just south of Baghdad. "It would be a raw contention for power. That would be the bloodiest piece of this war."

The soldiers declined to discuss the political jousting back home, but they expressed support for the Bush administration's approach to the war, which they described as sticking with a tumultuous situation to give Iraq a chance to stand on its own.

Leading Democrats have argued for a timeline to bring U.S. troops home, because obvious progress has been elusive, especially in Baghdad, and even some Republican lawmakers have recently called for a change in strategy. But soldiers criticized the idea of a precipitate withdrawal, largely because they believe their hard work would go for naught.

Capt. Jim Modlin, 26, of Oceanport, N.J., said he thought the situation in Iraq had improved between his deployment in 2003 and his return this year as a liaison officer to Iraqi security forces with the 3rd Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, based here on FOB Sykes outside Tall Afar. Modlin described himself as more liberal than conservative and said he had already cast his absentee ballot in Texas. He said he believed that U.S. elected officials would lead the military in the right direction, regardless of what happens Tuesday.

I would agree that the US policy would do the right thing if the Democrats were to win if there was not an active movement to throw Joe Lieberman out of the party. That is going to hurt the Dems tomorrow, I think. So will John Kerry's timely reminder of why the Dems are weak on defense.

Simply put, if we pull out, we will ignite a bloodbath. The US will lose and the terrorists will have won. And the politicians and the left will succeed in stopping any chance to spread democracy. Is that really what this nation is going to be remembered for? I rather suspect that these things may be the reason for the sudden, sharp break toward the Republicans in all the polls.

UPDATE: Others: Confederate Yankee, Patterico's Pontifications, The Political Pit Bull, Say Anything, All Things Beautiful, BLACKFIVE, The Glittering Eye, Iowa Voice, Sensible Mom, Hyscience, Althouse and WuzzaDem,

Politics, War | Gaius November 6, 2006

By jpg, November 6, 2006 @ 9:09 am

I am from Falls City, Nebraska. I don’t know Jonathan personally, but he played ball for my brother at one of the local high schools. Good people are he and his family. God bless all the soldiers. JPG
By mokus, November 6, 2006 @ 11:24 am

The prospect of Saddam’s execution will bring things to a head. Sunni attempts to keep him alive will be met by Shi’a demands he be put to death. If the two sides mobilize their various armed elements, the long simmering civil war could boil over, break out of the shadows, and inflame Baghdad.

Our forces should be prepared well in advance to protect themselves.
By Former Republican, November 6, 2006 @ 4:31 pm

Ordinary Iraqis want us to go:

“Majorities in all regions except Kurdish areas state that the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) should withdraw immediately, adding that the MNF-I’s departure would make them feel safer and decrease violence,” concludes the 20-page State Department report, titled “Iraq Civil War Fears Remain High in Sunni and Mixed Areas.” The report was based on 1,870 face-to-face interviews conducted from June 26 to July 6.

I think ordinary Iraqis have a better idea what’s good for them than our soldiers do. And if they want us to go, we don’t have a moral basis for staying.
By Donna, November 6, 2006 @ 6:31 pm

What kind of arrogance is it that we think Americans, whether Republicans, Democrats, regular citizens or soldiers, should be the decision-makers about Iraq’s future? That is for the Iraqi people to decide. It is their country, and if they want us to leave or set a timetable to leave, then so be it. If they want us to stay, so be it, and then we can decide staying or leaving based upon what we also want.

Where we really need to be morally responsible is to stop regarding everyone outside our own worldview as inferior or as having lesser rights to self-determination than we claim for ourselves.
The one piece of a moral America that needs to stay in Iraq is a big chunk of our tax dollars for paying for the mess we allowed in somebody else’s nation. We invaded, we allowed the chaos to grow unchecked, we made policy based on theories instead of common sense.
By kreiz, November 7, 2006 @ 9:35 am

Donna, you presume that the Iraqis, if left to their own devices, would decide their own fate. This ignores other likely regional interlopers, namely, Iran, Syria and Al Qaeda. Perhaps the US would be more willing to leave Iraq if the ensuing vacuum wouldn’t be influenced and/or filled by those powers. It’s a quandry, to be sure, one that we should’ve thought through before 2003. But it’s still a reality. It’s not all about us.