Facing Fact
I see certain things as fact. Others take exception to those facts on a fairly regular basis around here. Fine, that is part and parcel of doing this self-imposed job of hanging my thoughts out for the world to see every day. My view of the world does not always coincide with other people's perspective. But there are some things I honestly believe are right and just and true in the world. Those things boil down to a single word: freedom. I think it is wrong to force others to accept your views. Don't get me wrong here, you have every right to try to convince others to accept your views, but you have no right - at all - to force those views on others. Ever. And to use violence or intimidation to force those views on the unwilling is heinous. Which brings us to this.
If we, the most powerful force on the planet, in a fit of disappointment and anger at our bungling policies to date, decide to shrug off our responsibilities to the future — we will soon receive, and deserve, the furious contempt of a terrified world. In fact, even those Americans who today can't wait to end our involvement in the "hopeless" war in Iraq will — when the consequences of our irresponsibility becomes manifest — join the chorus of outrage.
Expedient Washington politicians, take note: Your public is fickle. They may cheer your decision today to get out of Iraq but vote you out of office tomorrow when they don't like the results.
Much of the world (and a fair portion of the American public) may hate us today for our alleged arrogance. But they will spit out our name with contempt through time if we permit to be released the whirlwind that will follow our exit.
I have heard it said (by conservatives and Republicans, as well as others) that "if the Iraqis just want to murder each other, we should let them. We offered them freedom, and they didn't want it." If our decision on Iraq was only about Iraq, that argument might be persuasive.
But if, as it is hard to imagine otherwise, our departure from Iraq yields civil war, chaos, warlordism and terrorist safe havens — it is very likely that Iran will lurch in to harvest their advantages, Turkey will send in its army to stop an independent Kurdistan, and Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the other Sunni states will be sucked in to fend off Shi'a Iran's hegemony. In that nightmare maelstrom the 20 million barrels a day of oil shipped from the Persian Gulf — and the world economy with it — will be in daily risk of being cut off.
Nor is that all. Al Qaeda and other terrorists are already gloating that they have whipped the "cowardly Americans" in Iraq. We will be seen (in fact, we are already beginning to be seen) as a weak reed for moderate Muslims to rely on in their hearts and mind struggle against the radical Islamists. Bin Laden was right in one regard: People fear and follow the strong horse; even more so in Middle Eastern culture, where restraint is seen as weakness and murder is seen as strength.
Please read the whole thing. We are at a crossroads. There is a horrible calculus here: We have lost around 3,000 of our fellow citizens to this war. Our enemies have decided on a tactic of murdering their own people to defeat us. And if we walk away, they will have won a great victory at an astonishingly low cost to us, regardless of how high the butcher's bill is to their own. The Islamists are not Muslims. They seek only temporal power while pretending a religious fealty to Islam. They do not care who they kill to get that power.
And they will continue to press the attack if we walk away. They will not stop. They will be emboldened. The "emerging consensus" of the "realists" will cost the entire world a horrible price.
UPDATE: Don't miss the "Stuffington Roast".
Other Links to this Post
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Doug Ross @ Journal — Thursday, 23 November , 2006 @ 8:00 am
By TJM, Thursday, 23 November , 2006 @ 5:45 am
Here’s your problem and Tony’s:”stay and with shrewder policies…”
Neither you nor he nor certainly this unworldly administration can come up with this necessary condition to achieve the desired outcome.
All you have is a normative statement. You say “we should..” but have no clue as to how to recover the field that has been so befouled by the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi inter alii.
Dropping the words Al Qaeda into an arguement on this topic is to raise an ineffectual shibboleth. The Pentagon doesn’t think AQ is more than 10% of the fighters. You may as well propose to solve the 1300 year old schism between Sunni and Shi’ali as to propose to solve the US’ problems in Iraq. It will be just as unlikely a solution.
By Gaius, Thursday, 23 November , 2006 @ 7:16 am
And repeating the mantra that “we can’t win and must quit at once” like a magic spell is different how?
Rather disingenuous.
By John Q, Thursday, 23 November , 2006 @ 8:34 am
With you committment to facts, you should have picked out the problem with this:
“…our departure from Iraq yields civil war, chaos, warlordism and terrorist safe havens”
The FACT is that our PRESENCE in Iraq has yielded civil war, chaos, warlordism, and terroist safe havens. That is our legacy to Iraq as things stand now. After three and one half years. The question is not whether these things will happen if we leave. They have happened. They are the everyday reality right now. The question is what is the best way to emerge from these facts. There seems to be no good reason to imagine that the continued presence of the forces that have brought these facts, will undo them.
By Guy, Thursday, 23 November , 2006 @ 9:54 am
I do not,and never have pretended to have any answers as to how to solve the issue in Iraq. The one thing I know is that we belong there. WMD aside, there are ample reasons for us to have boots on the ground in Iraq. In spite of the logic from a previous commentor, without our presence, Iraq would descend into total and complete chaos.No ifs, buts, ands, or maybes about it. Right now, as bad as it is, we are the only thing that is holding Iraq together.
Go big, go long, go short…the answer is probably there somewhere.
By Arlo, Thursday, 23 November , 2006 @ 10:55 am
Remember the MOVE group in Philadelphia? That was the only time I remember that a bomb was dropped on Americans. We don’t accept “collateral damage” here. If a modern day Al Capone-type lived in my town, I would live in fear but I wouldn’t want the town bombed or occupied with shoot to kill checkpoints or heavily armed troops who shoot to kill when they feel a possible threat. Its the difference between having a fever and dying, as someone put it.