whosez

This is for those Democrats, Liberals and members of the media who think that we should get out of Iraq.

I don’t think that you or many Americans understand what war is, what our role in a war is or what the enemy’s role is.

If we establish a plan for executing a war and we determine an objective, doesn’t anyone understand that the enemy’s role is to foil that plan and to prevent us from reaching that objective?

If we plan to rebuild the infrastructure, they try to destroy the infrastructure. If we plan to increase oil production, they try to prevent oil production. If we plan to make roads safe, they try to make them dangerous. If we plan to train Iraqi security forces, they attack recruitment, training and housing facilities. If we plan to help the Iraqis form a representative government, they try to prevent it with attacks and assassination attempts. No matter what we plan, they will do everything they can to prevent the plan from being successful. That’s what enemies do.

So, what do some Americans do? They call for public disclosure of our plans. To do so would aid and abet the enemy. We know that the long range plan is to help Iraq establish a peaceful representative government and to bring such a government to a part of the world where such a concept is alien. That’s the plan. To call for more information than that, to call for specifics, is treasonous.

Would you place a wager—support a football team that delivered their playbook to their opponent: that allowed the opposing linebackers to listen in on the offensive huddle?

We have a world wide reputation for being a paper tiger. We have demonstrated that we have no staying power in any military conflict. We cut and run: often abandoning our supporters. Small wonder we have trouble marshalling support. Small wonder every two bit tyrant defies us. We haven’t won a war since World War Two.

Don’t cite Granada and Panama, they weren’t wars. Granada was a rescue mission and Panama was a police raid to effect a capture.

Don’t cite the first Gulf War. Answer this question.

If, as WW II was drawing to a close and we had destroyed the ability of the Japanese, German and Italian armies to mount an offensive and fight on, we had withdrawn our forces and left Tojo and the militarists, Hitler and the Nazis and Mussolini and the Brown Shirts in power, what do you think that the world would look like today? You can argue about whether we should have gone into Iraq or not. But we’re there. If we do not persevere, our ability to influence world events will be in the toilet, it’s almost there now.

Every one has an opinion: You have and opinion and I have an opinion. But, we need to recognize the difference between opinion and fact.

Facts: In 1978 Radical Islamic Fundamentalists declared war on the United States of America by invading and seizing the American Embassy in Teheran. (I would remind you that American Embassies are American Soil.) They held 53 Americans prisoner for 444 days. From that day on they killed Americans and bombed American facilities all over the world. A very small sample: 1983; the American Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut. 1993; The World Trade Center. 1998; Kenya, and Tanzania: truck bombs exploded almost simultaneously at 2 U.S. embassies. 2000; U.S. Navy Destroyer USS Cole. And finally September 11, 2001. In all that time four Presidents, two Republican and two Democrat, as well as the Congress and the majority of the American people did little to respond to these acts of war.

Now my opinion: I believe, with every fiber of my being, that if our enemies can figure out how, that they will attack us at home with either a nuclear device, a dirty bomb or a chemical/biological weapon. That they would do it whether we went into Iraq or not. And, by fighting them in Iraq we are interfering with their ability to attack us at home. You may disagree and that’s fine. But if you don’t see the need to persevere in Iraq, well, I think that you are living in a fantasy land.

One last point. You need to watch the History Channel. You need to learn of all the failed plans, not just during WW II, but in every war we have ever fought. You need to learn of deficiencies in weapons, armor and other equipment that required battlefield improvisation: tanks with logs strapped to them for additional armor, for instance.

Remember, our enemies, past, present and future, do everything that they can to prevent us from carrying out our plans: what ever they are. And they are just as smart as we are. And, this enemy is ruthless. They don’t care about the Geneva Convention, killing women and children, torturing their captives or following any recognized convention. This ruthlessness is worth 10 divisions against an enemy who worries about whether their prisoners are comfortable. If they drive us out of Iraq they will demonstrate that they are more powerful than we. That would be a disaster for the whole world.

It’s easy to hate President Bush, to criticize from afar. But, there is a difference between constructive criticism and being relentlessly shrill with no reasoned alternative.