The Political Inquirer

OK. Time to rattle the cage a bit.

I strongly support completing what we started in Iraq, whether the reasons to start it were valid or not.  We are making significant progress there at the moment; casualties and violence are down to record lows , the Iraqi military is taking over many of the day to day duties, sectarian strife is way down (some through segregation, equivelent to the U.S. a couple generations ago), and troop numbers will be coming down when deemed prudent by the military commanders in charge.  If we leave Iraq in a stable society with their idea of relative freedom, they will be better off long-term than they ever would have been under Sadaam.  I doubt you’d find many people in France, after losing property and civilian lives when the ‘occupiers’ came through,  saying they were better off under the Vichy government and Hitler (except the members of the Vichy government that weren’t massacred by their countrymen in that post-war bloodletting). And a stable, free Iraq adds an important element to the Middle East that can help stabilize the region.  The terrorists and dictators know this; that is why they threw everything they could into the fight.  And are losing.

I happen to have faith is the average Iraqi; I’ve known a number of them and- mostly- they are decent people that care for their families and truly want things better.  The vast majority there do not hate us- never have- and, while they want us to leave (as we want to leave), they want to make sure that enough of the mess is cleaned up that they can handle it from then on.It gets real tiring listening to anti-war forces, including the MSM, trying to turn this into a Vietnam scenario and their ‘glory days’ (for ‘killing field’ Cambodians and Vietnamese boat people, they have a different view).  It is the same in some ways, different in others.  It is the same in that the only way we can lose is if U.S. politicians force us to.

These reads on how things are going there are not from the news media, nor backbiting Democrats, nor from the Bush administration. It comes from people with ‘boots’ in the sand’, with the most at risk and the most experience in the reality of it all.  I was an early supporter of Michael Yon- the first to say Iraq was falling into civil war- before his seminal ‘Gates of Fire’ posting  that should have a Pulitzer.  The roundups at Mudville Gazette  (discounting most of the MNF-1 pieces put out by the PAO arm of the military) and much of what is at BlackFive speaks more of what has really been going on for a long time, both good and bad.  Also, for the civilian side of things, Iraq the Model was an early read, as were most of the bloggers linked there, both pro and con.  These are just entry points to a lot of reading since 2003.  In other words, I’ve done a lot to learn about the nitty-gritty details that go well beyond the body count of a car bomb.  They put names, faces, and stories behind many of the players, living and dead.  In one case, there were accounts of a full-scale battle in Mosul- both from soldiers and civilians- out there a week before it showed up in the MSM.  How many of anti-war Paul types have done this much reading continuously since 2003 of events there, from scores of people there?  Getting informed on this critical issue of the day is important and we shouldn’t be counting on Washington-based pundits of either side telling us what we should think.  Nor ‘pajama experts’ on the web, sitting comfortably at home.

The general consensus I get from all of this is that it is worth finishing up; despite the personal sacrifices involved, that’s the majority view of those serving.  It has certainly not been managed anywhere near as well as it should have been.  A lot of lives have been lost because of that.  But here is some news for you: with the exception of Gulf War I, that’s the way it is in every war.  Kesslring Pass, Anzio, the Battle of the Bulge, just to name a few World War II blunders.  All subject to major armchair quarterbacking and 20-20 hindsight.  We lost more lives on D-Day than the entire Iraq war to date and that was a great victory.  But pulling out early would likely result in a massacre on a scale of the Cambodian ‘Killing fields’ and I consider life precious, both Iraqi and American. (Don’t get me started on African life; the world seems to care more about toilet paper brands than the lives of Africans.)

And one thing to never forget about the Iraqi war: who is doing the majority of the killing and who they are killing? Our enemies there kill the vast majority and do so by deliberately targeting civilians; right now running about 10 civilians for every Coalition death (both rates about to set record lows).  They do this, not for military victory, but to get headlines for the anti-war movement in this country to help them out.  These monsters behead children, blow up marketplaces, and cut resistors faces off with piano wire.  And you want to do what they want done?

Now that the majority of Iraqis have turned against them (assisted by Petraeus’s COIN efforts), things should continue to improve.  The MSM talks little of Iraq these day; discussing how wrong they were makes them uncomfortable.  Not to mention the vidiot Americans, with TV remotes in hand, wants to change the channel off the war (but also doesn’t want to watch news of massacres if we leave abruptly) because they are bored.  The newest episodes of ‘Lost’ are more important.

The other tiring response is, when faced with having to admit things are getting better in Iraq, is ‘Fine, we’ve won; now let’s bring everybody home’.  We might want to start with the troops still in the Philippines, Germany, Japan and Italy first.  They’re still there from wars won 60 years ago.  Cutting the contingents in half there would go a long way to relieving the pressure on the military; I think we’re safe from further Nazi and imperialistic Japanese aggression.  The only place we don’t have troops is Vietnam; because we lost that one.

So there it is; a fair amount of heresy for a site with so many Paul supporters.  The comments should be fun, but let’s keep it civil, folks.