Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Conservative cowards renounce Iraq and the war for our future
Bush loses; the world rejoices and fascist Islam is poised for victory in Iraq
by Ferdinand III
In the face of the frenzied anti-Americanism and anti-conservatism which now grips both the media and the average layman across the world, those paleo and neo-cons who once supported a robust foreign policy, are noisily renouncing the ‘arrogance of nation building’ in Iraq and ‘compassionate conservatism’ in general and sprinting to the safety of anti-Iraqi war protest groups of all stripes. A long and dispirited list of once proud Iraqi-war supporters are now red-faced, shouting delirious insults and recriminations at a supposed failed policy and lamenting ‘chaos’ in a country that has not known anything else in its bloody 1400 history under Islamic occupation. One would suppose that they are concerned about their ‘legacy’ and future job and writing opportunities in their disregard for what needs to be done to defeat an intolerant and fascist ideology.
Back to basics. We are in Iraq and cannot leave until the regime is stabilized and as many jihadists, fascists, terrorists and assorted losers are killed. Fair enough. How to do this is the real question. Cutting off money and men as the Democrats propose is not very intelligent. Casting about for scapegoats is even less so. Not many will say this, so someone should - I would consider a war in which 50.000 enemy dead litter the fields against 3.000 of your own soldiers a rather smashing victory. Yet the bleeding hearts will cry about every body bag and convince you that no sacrifice is worth the effort. If that was true than D-Day was a mistake and dismantling the twin fascisms of Hitlerism and Russian communism within 50 years blunders.
Pacifists and Marxists constantly scream about the death rate in Iraq of civilians. Along with 50.000 dead Islamic terrorists there lie, sadly, the same number of dead civilians. From the realist and security perspective this is not our concern. We are there to destroy fascist elements that would use Iraq and its oil money in the global jihad of Islamic fascism against the West. Unfortunately the barbarians are butchering the beleaguered and defenseless. If Iraqi’s desire to slaughter their countrymen, then that is their affair – it affects the West only as it impacts our forward strategy of denying fascist Islam and terrorists nation state support, oil money and territorial training centers.
It is clear that a low level civil war is in progress in Iraq but so what? Since the first Sunni-Shia clash in 657 AD the Iraqi Muslims have been killing each other with great enthusiasm and energy, for sundry reasons ranging from issues of faith, to power politics, to family, tribal and blood feuds. Such carnage will never stop in a culture when tit for tat translates into bombs for bullets. The 680 AD civil war in which the Shia martyr Husayn was killed makes the current round of car bombs and beheadings look like a bible study meeting. The current kill rate is even low by historical comparisons of the past century. Today about 30-50 civilians die per day on average – at par or below the daily average since 1932. Yet even amidst this moderate [for Iraq] carnage, the Iraqi economy grows, 14 out of 18 provinces are quiescent and slowly but surely the Iraqi government and army are starting to mature and take over more control from their American benefactors.
The US has two options now in Iraq. Let’s assume that the goal is to prevent Iraq from becoming a terror sponsoring oil rich state controlled by Iran and Syria in part, in either its current form, or in a partition of Sunniland; Shiastan and Kurdistan. Option one is to retreat into a defensive perimeter; push the Iraqi army and police into front line duty; hold a referendum on whether the population wants the US there or not; and over time withdraw US troops and tell the Iraqi’s that their civil war is their own mess to stop. This strategy would limit US casualties, defray the $150 billion per annum investment that the US is pouring into Iraq in a seemingly unending war, and set a politically resonant timetable to bring the kids back home.
It would also signal a US and Western defeat in Iraq. Europe has no military and no leadership – so in Mark Steyn’s phrase it is ‘America Alone’ that must carry the flag of freedom. Leaving Iraq within 2 years will leave it with an unstable government and a mounting civil war. The chances of terrorism, supported by Iran and Syria flourishing in the Sunni and Shia areas will be high. An increase in the civilian death rate is also ensured. This leads to the only real option open to the Americans.
If one studies US attempts at nation-building in the last half-century, ranging from successes [Germany and Japan] to failures [Haiti and Somalia, both of which were hampered by UN control] and to all the uncertain outcomes in-between [Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kosovo, all of which have UN involvement], one of the most important things we should have learned is that "while staying long does not guarantee success, leaving early ensures failure."
In order for freedom to have a chance of developing in Iraq, or in Afghanistan we must be patient as well as strong. It would be an unmitigated disaster to leave too early. Our Iraqi supporters would be crushed, terrorists and Islamic radicals would have won, and our own struggle and sacrifices would have been for naught. In this ‘option two’ of staying long the following would need to be done in Iraq: impose immediately martial law in lawless areas; destroy both the Sunni and Shia militia; close off all border crossings; imprisonment [with trials and death sentences] of militia leaders; and engage in a ruthless, bloody and immediate destruction and suppression of any and all forms of anti-regime violence by a mixture of US forces and Iraqi army elements.
In other words – get busy with finishing the war. We have enough troops there. We lack the will to win.
The war against fascist Islam is real. Like all wars many will die, mistakes will be made, and adjustments will be forced upon us. The real problem we have is that domestically some 60% of the population in Canada and the US is adamantly anti-war, or anti-American, or anti-Western. Conservatives and realists are the last people I would expect to run and hide from the central issue of our times. It is a degrading and obnoxious display of mental cowardice.