By J.B. Williams
Friday, August 24, 2007
No matter how or why you think we got into Iraq, the point now is, we have troops in Iraq. We have a responsibility to them. We owe it to them to make decisions with their best interests in mind, no matter what we might like to do if we had a magic wand.
While many have made a profession of wringing their hands over the non-essential points surrounding the topic of Iraq, only three choices exist. I'll lay them out for you in no uncertain terms, so that even the lamest leftist numbskull can understand. Then you can pick one, but this time, stick to it! This includes you, Hillary!
No more casting a vote one way, sending troops into battle and then undermining the effort after. No more speaking out against the war while voting for it. No more asking our troops to strap up and take one for the team and then jumping ship from that team like a turncoat.
In short, our troops are our nation's volunteer "warriors." They are our national defense system, one and all. As such, they are extremely well trained to do two things, kill bad guys and break their stuff, all in the name (and defense) of the good guys of course.
They are NOT our international pizza delivery boys and girls or our diplomatic Corps. They are NOT our Peace Corps. They are our "WAR" Corps… They don't make peace, they make WAR. Only after the war is won, can peace follow and it seldom follows immediately. Ask Japan, which is now one of our strongest allies.
Contrary to popular political rhetoric, our military is not our first tool of international diplomacy. They are in fact sent in last, to do a largely thankless and messy job that our nation's diplomats failed to accomplish by more peaceful means.
We do NOT conquer nations. We liberate peoples held captive by blood thirsty tyrannical regimes, usually at the request of the captive. The Iraqi people asked us to finish the mission in 1991 and the same UN members standing in the way now, were in the way then.
Although many Americans have lost sight of all of these facts, I can assure you, those we have liberated over the last 200 years and those we liberate them from, know these facts all too well. Those we liberated them from, still don't like us much. Those regimes who fear they are next, don't like us at all. Can it be any other way?
In almost every case in history, those we liberated have made pretty good international allies only after our soldiers finished their work.
The military mission in Iraq was to depose the world's most dangerous regime since Hitler's killing spree across Europe. That mission was indeed accomplished within weeks of American troops arriving in Iraq. The Hussein regime no longer exists.
It came as no surprise to any intelligent individual, that once the Hussein boot was lifted from the necks of an otherwise unruly Iraqi population, peace would not be instant. Liberating a people from a tyrannical regime requires replacing that regime with something that is not tyrannical, namely, some form of democratic self-governance.
Anyone interested in knowing, should study the timeline of events following the fall of the Hussein regime, specifically the light-speed at which the Iraqi people rallied to install an interim government, draft and pass a constitution and proceed to formal democratic elections in which almost 70% of the Iraq population took part in freely electing their new democratic government.
We're talking about bringing a nation held captive in the Stone Age for decades, into the 21st Century overnight. We're also talking about accomplishing it all while Al Qaeda, Iran and Syria were funneling terrorists into the country to destabilize and derail that effort. A new mission was now established.
Again, it's no secret that a free and peaceful Iraq will make a much better international ally than Hussein's Iraq did. It's also no secret that before that can happen, remnants of Al Qaeda cells, Iranian and Syrian soldiers and left-over Hussein Batthists, must be dealt with.
As of today, most of Iraq is indeed free and peaceful, unlike before American soldiers arrived. However, pockets of enemy fighters and terrorists remain in a few small regions of Iraq. One way or another, this continued threat must be dealt with, if not by America and coalition forces, then by someone else. In this regard, only three options exist for American voters when considering who should be making such decisions.
Yes, the new Iraq government is struggling to unite a free nation and sometimes, they seem to have as much trouble doing it as we do in the states. Judging from the bad behavior of our own politicians in Washington, this really should not shock anyone American that Iraq's politicians have trouble coming together on the issues.
The term "stay the course" is a misused term. The military course of action is constantly changing to address and ever changing situation in theater. From the Joint Chiefs to field commanders and troops in the field of operations, the course is adapted to meet the arising challenges on almost an hour by hour basis.
The only course we are staying is the course of providing military support to an Iraqi force being trained by coalition soldiers until such time that they can provide adequate security for their newly formed government. We are staying this course because if we don't, more innocent Iraqi citizens, who braved a gauntlet of fire for the privilege and honor of holding up a purple finger of freedom, will die needlessly.
In case you think this is Bush's course, I assure you, George W. Bush has never written a military battle plan in his life, nor did he write the reality of the Middle East or Iraq, and no President will be writing the plans for what needs to happen militarily to succeed. This responsibility rests with the Joint Chiefs, who are career military officers with decades of experience in such matters and yes, nobody knows the unpredictable nature of war better than they.
Oddly, there are some who are unaware of the fact that the entire free world is currently engaged in a battle for civilization against jihadists of the extreme Muslim variety. Somehow, they have overlooked the fact that these groups not only attacked the U.S. on 9/11/01 and still seek to do even more damage today, but also that they have been attacking civilized societies around the globe for more than thirty years now.
These folks are also unaware that both warring parties understand Iraq to be the current central front in their war. It is largely these folks who think Bush caused this war, unaware that the war started actually under Jimmy Carter. I remind you that Iranian jihadists held and tortured American hostages for months in Tehran, until the day Jimmy Carter climbed aboard Marine One to depart the White House lawn one last time, which happens to be the same day Tehran decided to release those hostages… the same day Ronald Reagan was sworn into office.
The retreat message is simple. We want the war to end, no matter what. No matter what happens to the Iraqi people or their country once we leave, the Iraqi people are on their own. We don't care what happens to them next, we care only about ourselves and we just want to leave.
We don't believe leaving Iraq will help us in the war on terror, but we don't care about that either. Bush lied and people died and war is ugly and we don't like it anymore. That's it… that's the message. We'll address the consequences of our decision when we see what they are. We're not looking beyond today and you can't make us.
With the exception of a very few soldiers who didn't understand they were signing up to be soldiers when they joined the military, our soldiers in the Middle East have but one serious complaint. Someone, in Washington D.C. no doubt, under the duress of leftists I'm sure, came up with so-called "rules of engagement" that tie the hands of our soldiers in combat. The bottom line is they are not allowed to act like soldiers in a war zone.
Even though innocent American lives hang in the balance, we're not supposed to offend terror detainees in an effort to extract vital information concerning terror operations. Even though our enemy will strap a bomb to the chest of their own three year old and detonate the child as he nears an American soldier trying to hand him a Hershey bar, our soldiers are told not to fire until fired upon, because there could be collateral damage.
Regardless of the fact that the enemy wears no uniform, serves under no flag, follows no known chain of command and makes no distinction between military and civilian targets, we are supposed to engage this enemy under the Geneva Conventions, which admittedly apply only to those nations which are compliant signatory members of that convention.
In our own land, terror cells in hiding are supposed to be given constitutional rights under the U.S. Criminal Justice code, which is an inadequate system for handling common shop lifters and thugs. Such a system is no match for trained international terrorists seeking to level a number of major U.S. cities in single moment.
We are not serious about winning this war or even preventing the next 9/11. We pretend to be worried about a nuke in a U.S. city, but won't even close our own borders to unknown invaders with unknown intentions. It's hard to be more foolish than that, but we try.
So, we ask our troops to stand in the breech between us and them, hold their fire, try not to offend the enemy and wait to be sent home in a flag draped coffin.
On this basis, if this is how we intend to fight this war, then I agree, let's bring them home now. If we won't allow our soldiers to do their job and won't support them until the complete their mission, then let's not ask them to take bullets for us any longer.
But let's not kid ourselves into thinking that it will end the war. It will instead move the field of battle from Iraq and Afghanistan to New York City and Atlanta, Los Angeles and Portland, San Diego and Phoenix, Miami and St Louis.
These are the three options we have as American citizens. We elect the leadership that will face such decisions. Make the choice carefully and stick to your choice.
If there was ever a topic deserving of more than political rhetoric, it's this one. Make your choice, state your decision and vote for the people most likely to carry out that strategy. Don't make excuses, just make your choice and stick to it.
When it's all over, we'll all know who had it right and who had it wrong. Either way, some will learn lessons most of us learned by the third grade.
When evil is allowed to exist, it will gain strength and reach. When it's allowed to prevail, good people die or live in bondage. If we won't stand against evil abroad, it will find us on our own doorstep. Is there really any doubt about that after 9/11?
America will belong to the free only so long as Americans support their brave. Think about that!
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