Mayor Ed's Exit Strategy
A pragmatic middle way from the former Hizzoner? http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/05/the_hard_truth_about_leaving_i.html
-Ico
posted by The Iconoclast @ 6:57 PM
4 Comments
Slaying Wikiality
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Wednesday, May 30, 2007
-Ico
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I agree with most of Mayor Koch's assessment (who'd have thunk it?!?!) with the slight exception that I consider his ultimatum to NATO partners and regional Arab allies naive.....
NATO is nothing but U.S. military welfare for Europe. Without our contribution they could not even address an intra-European conflict in the Balkans - and that was over a decade ago, before their military budgets shrunk even further. Even with the pro-American (or slightly less anti-American) governments taking hold in Europe, countries who could conceivably make a meaningful contribution (France, Germany) would be unable to sell it internally. Their constituencies, not unlike most of the American left, clearly do not perceive Muslim expansionism as a threat worthy of military intervention.
And, as for the regional Arab allies...... come on, none of those countries could even come close to withstanding the internal instability that would surely come from helping the Great Satan. The “moderate” countries that could make a contribution (Jordan, for instance) are too small. The larger countries (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iran), would immediately take sides (they have already taken sides and are fueling the problem). Egypt would be a possibility, but they have their hands full restraining a vocal emerging Islamic pseudo-democracy. Frankly, the best we can hope for is the reluctant cooperation that Pakistan offers – and let’s not forget that it is forced upon them by dictatorial fiat.
I wholeheartedly agree, however, that we must force the oil and power sharing - as soon as yesterday. In the interest of allowing them self-rule, we're paying with blood and treasure their inability to compromise. Amusing as it might be to watch the Sunis get their comeuppance, enough is enough.
Last night I finished watching a two-part documentary on the National Geographic channel titled Inside 9/11. It served to remind me just how screwed we really are in Iraq.
When we leave Iraq, it will be viewed in the Muslim world as another huge victory for the Muslims over the West. It will probably be viewed as an even bigger victory than Afghanistan (over the Soviets). It is an understatement to say that this will inspire even more Islamic Jihadists to even larger goals.
Al Quaeda's stated mission is the complete withdrawal of the U.S./Israel from the Middle East. When we withdraw from Iraq, this is merely going to change the venue of the fight. There will be more terrorist attacks on U.S. targets throughout the world. It will be a free for all.
There is nothing we can do about this. Again, hindsight being 20-20, we should have made sure in the early months of the Iraq War that we were in position to win the peace. We did not.
We are in for a long, bloody conflict with the end being very much in doubt. We have lost in Iraq. It will be painful, and costly, but dragging it out any longer will not help. We need to get out, and get out now.
I reluctantly concur. In fact, I am pessimistic that we can win at all given our deep internal divisions when it comes to even diagnosing the problem. We have been in an undeclared war with these savages longer than most of us realize. No war has ever been won through appeasement and this will not be the first one.
Unfortunately, the only events that bring us together in the fight are the events that kill thousands of our citizens – and there will surely be more to come. Iraq would have been an easy victory, perhaps even a crushing and final one, had we presented the united front our enemy presents.
Also unfortunately, this is not a conflict that can be won anywhere but the battlefield. It cannot be won by withdrawing to alternative energies, as some would have it. It cannot be won through increasing our aid to the poor in the Muslim world. It certainly cannot be won by negotiating with them and logically convincing them that the 21st century has brought about progress from the 7th. In that light, there is little difference between the Islamic radicals and the ants behind my house – they bother me every time they can until I eliminate them. Every so often they bite me and I eliminate them again. I may not prevail definitively, but I nonetheless continue to live well.
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