Posted: 10/15/2006 12:47:27 PM EDT
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On War #187 October 11, 2006 Why We Still Fight By William S. Lind At least 32 American troops have been killed in Iraq this month. Approximately 300 have been wounded. The “battle for Baghdad” is going nowhere. A Marine friend just back from Ramadi said to me, “It didn’t get any better while I was there, and it’s not going to get better.” Virtually everyone in Washington, except the people in the White House, knows that is true for all of Iraq. Actually, I think the White House knows it too. Why then does it insist on “staying the course” at a casualty rate of more than one thousand Americans per month? The answer is breathtaking in its cynicism: so the retreat from Iraq happens on the next President’s watch. That is why we still fight. Yep, it’s now all about George. Anyone who thinks that is too low, too mean, too despicable even for this bunch does not understand the meaning of the adjective “Rovian.” Would they let thousands more young Americans get killed or wounded just so George W. does not have to face the consequences of his own folly? In a heartbeat. Not that it’s going to help. When history finally lifts it leg on the Bush administration, it will wash all such tricks away, leaving only the hubris and the incompetence. Jeffrey Hart, who with Russell Kirk gone is probably the top intellectual in the conservative movement, has already written that George W. Bush is the worst President America ever had. I think the honor still belongs to the sainted Woodrow, but if Bush attacks Iran, he may yet earn the prize. That third and final act in the Bush tragicomedy is waiting in the wings. A post-election Democratic House, Senate or both might in theory say no to another war. But if the Bush administration’s cynicism is boundless, the Democrats’ intellectual vacuity and moral cowardice are equally so. You can’t beat something with nothing, but Democrats have put forward nothing in the way of an alternative to Bush’s defense and foreign policies. On Iran, the question is whether they will be more scared of the Republicans or of the Israeli lobby. Either way, they will hide under the bed, just as they have hidden under the bed on the war in Iraq. It appears at the moment that a Congressional demand for withdrawal from Iraq is more likely if the Republicans keep the Senate and Senator John Warner of Virginia remains Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee than if the Democrats take over. There is a great deal of material available to the Democrats to offer an alternative, much of it the product of the Military Reform Movement of the 1970s and 80s. Gary Hart can tell them all about it. There is even a somewhat graceful way out of Iraq, if the Dems will ask themselves my favorite foreign policy question, WWBD - - What Would Bismarck Do? He would transfer sufficient Swiss francs to interested parties so that the current government of Iraq asks us to leave. They, not we, would then hold the world’s ugliest baby, even though it was America’s indiscretion that gave the bastard birth. But donkeys will think when pigs fly. A Democratic Congress will be as stupid, cowardly and corrupt as its Republican predecessor; in reality, both parties are one party, the party of successful career politicians. The White House will continue a lost war in Iraq, solely to dump the mess in the next President’s lap. America or Israel will attack Iran, pulling what’s left of the temple down on our heads. Congress will do nothing to stop either war. By 2008, I may not be the only monarchist in America. William S. Lind, expressing his own personal opinion, is Director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism for the Free Congress Foundation. |
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Why We Still Fight by SteyrAUG Because AFTER we removed Saddam and made certain he was no longer a threat to the US, at the time it was unknown if he had an arsenal of bio/chemical weapons, US forces came under attack by an insurgency of radical Fundamentalists from Iraq and neighboring states. They sought to implement a radical Islamic theocracy such as the one that exists in Iran. In addition to not wanting to flee because we were attacked, which would encourage our enemies as it did in Somalia, we didn't want to allow a secular government in the Middle East to be replaced by yet another radical fundamentalist government. As a result, and with the additional goal of helping create an even more Democratic state in the region, we were forced to stay. This isn't a matter of being able to say "Fuck it, let them have it" like we did in Vietnam. Southeastern communists were willing to stay in their regions, as we saw on 9-11 Muslim fanatics are not. Just as soon as we stop being attacked by radical Islamic extremists who make up the insurgency we can go home. |
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I sure as hell know we cant just bail out after all we've done so far but how many more of our soldiers have to lose their limbs and their lives before bush caves and realises he fucked up. We should have finished the job back in 91' when we had a coalition and not just the US trying to be billy bad ass and going in alone. its a good thing we cut the head off sadam but now were stuck over there and more and more ppl are killed everyday and does anybody think the next president in line will have a plan to get us outa there?? i dont believe so. 
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