California Conservative

As you (my readers) know, I haven’t been writing much about Iraq lately. One reason is that I am waiting to see if Iraqi police and security can take over the job, thereby allowing us to reduce our troop levels as promised. Another reason is that I have trouble knowing what to say…

I really thought that the Iraqi’s would get it together by now, and that we could begin troop draw downs. I had compared the Iraq conflict to the American Civil War before in an article, but now I’m not as sure. I assumed that the Iraqi’s really wanted peace, but I wonder now how badly they want it… and if they are willing to pay the price to achieve it. I ask myself, “What is the answer?”

Is it really setting a deadline, say summer of 2007 and sending a clear message that we have done above and beyond that which is reasonable?

I support the troops and the mission as much as any civilian I know… but I am also deeply concerned about our troops in harms way.

After much thought (and considering the invaluable input of some of our troops in the field) I have decided the following… that we all have the same facts regarding Iraq, the question for each of us is which filter you view it through… Here are three pair of “sunglasses” through which one may view the conflict in Iraq.

The first is that our troops are miserable, want to come home, may be forced to stay until 2010, meanwhile the violence is getting worse, not better. (See the heading from Newsweek above) Article found HERE. This is a civil war, and we need to get out of the way. The problem with this (as I will outline below) is that we are not there to fight a civil war. We are fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq, and unfortunately some Iraqis (though certainly not all) have stepped on the other side of the line and have made the conscious (though misinformed choice) to become our enemies rather than our friends.

The second perspective is that Iraq was doing pretty well functionally before we came and bombed it into the Stone Age, therefore as Americans we have the responsibility to clean it up and make it better than it was. We had allocated billions to rebuilding Iraq, and much work was done, as I wrote HERE. The problem with keeping our troops there for this reason is that this is not a sufficient reason for our troops to die. In other countries we would simply drop supplies and let the local governments slug it out with the warlords.

The third view (the one I subscribe to) is that the conflict in Iraq is part of the larger war against terrorism. (See circles diagram to the right).

It is true, Iraqis were not “insurging” before we came along, but that was also before Al Qaeda in Iraq was there recruiting, equipping, misleading, and funding the insurgency. America will fight radical Islamic fundamentalists – either today in Iraq, or tomorrow somewhere else in the Middle East or even here in our country. Withdrawing from Vietnam emboldened our enemies and sent the message that our military is run by politicians who can be easily be swayed by soft, doped up hippies, and Americans do not have the guts for an extended, brutal conflict. Many Americans believe that we in fact did win the Vietnam conflict, and if we would have stayed the course there the world would now be a better place. Click HERE for an excellent book on that subject.

Regarding Iraq, we must remember that we are not in the Middle East to fight an insurgency, but as one of our military members wrote:

To smash Hezbolah, Al Aqsa, Hamas and Al Qaeda. I want the blood of those within these groups to run down the very sewers in which they crawled out of. We can not live amongst those who would blow up school children in class rooms, gun down children on playgrounds or crash airplanes into buildings. We simply can not co-exist with these animals.”

I suppose one could think of Iraq as a large Sand Trap, to lure out our enemies so that we might extinguish them. The sad thing is, as I read in a recent poll, most Iraqi’s believe that American troops are there to stay. No wonder many Iraqis do not want us there and support the insurgency. It is a vicious circle… the more the Iraqis join with Al Qaeda in Iraq to attack our troops, the longer our troops will be there. Unfortunate as this is, focusing on it is taking our eye off the ball. Our conflict in Iraq is a smaller piece of a bigger war, the global war against radical Islamic fundamentalists (terrorists).

I believe that many Iraqis’ will look back with shame when they realize that they were lied to… that the last thing we Americans want is their Real Estate. (You can buy desert property here in America real cheap if you want to!) As one of our sailors wrote me…

I spend a lot of time in Kuwait City and the Kuwaitis’ are still thanking us for saving them in the last Gulf War. How long ago was that? And, the Kuwaitis’ still remember! That’s important. Our own elected officials call us murderers while the Kuwaitis’ praise us — go figure.

In the last Presidential Election, John Kerry accused President Bush of, “taking his eye off the ball.” All Americans risk doing that at this time. We went to Iraq as part of the global War against Terrorism, and that is why we need to stay there. As one of our troops wrote me:

“All one one can do is support the troops, support the mission and pray that something changes over the next few years…. “…it is the little things that makes the troops feel appreciated. I was in Dallas/Ft. Worth in January when a bunch of grunts were coming home for R & R. They looked tired and wrung out as they came off the plane - it was EXACTLY like the Budweiser commercial. There I was, with my division officer, waiting to board when these kids came off - people IMMEDIATELY stood up and cheered. As an officer it made me feel good to see something like this as I’ve never been on the receiving end. Being that it made me feel good I could only imagine how those grunts felt.”

All that being said, my heart does go out to our service members who are pulling double and triple tours; especially those who are married and have children. I as a civilian try to make myself available to help the families. I would support different troop rotations and levels (perhaps by using smaller units of Marines and Coasties) without taking our eye off the ball. I believe that none of us fully perceive the long-term ripple effect that a pullout from Iraq would cause.

Our troops need to leave Iraq as victorious, after crushing Al Qaeda in Iraq.

Cross-posted at Rightfielder

This entry was posted on Friday, October 13th, 2006 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Iraq, Military, Op-Ed, Patriotism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.