Of Losing Iraq

[monk222]

♠
For all the cheering and the relief over the prospect of leaving the nightmare of Iraq, there is a dark side. It is not a "get out of jail free" card. Mark Steyn hits that note pretty hard with his high-testosterone prose:

As it is, we're in a very dark place right now. It has been a long time since America unambiguously won a war, and to choose to lose Iraq would be an act of such parochial self-indulgence that the American moment would not endure, and would not deserve to. Europe is becoming semi-Muslim, Third World basket-case states are going nuclear, and, for all that 40 percent of planetary military spending, America can't muster the will to take on pipsqueak enemies. We think we can just call off the game early, and go back home and watch TV.

It doesn't work like that. Whatever it started out as, Iraq is a test of American seriousness. And, if the Great Satan can't win in Vietnam or Iraq, where can it win? That's how China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Venezuela and a whole lot of others look at it. "These Colors Don't Run" is a fine T-shirt slogan, but in reality these colors have spent 40 years running from the jungles of Southeast Asia, the helicopters in the Persian desert, the streets of Mogadishu. ... To add the sands of Mesopotamia to the list will be an act of weakness from which America will never recover.

That is the way the Muslim radical militants have read past American set-backs, and I do not see any reason why they will not see this as a big celebratory triumph over the Great Satan. But that was the argument for going in in controlling force to effect conclusive order at the outset, if America was to go in at all.

After these years of failure, we seem to be without any credible remedy for the situation, having lost the upper hand. Although we presumably would like to leave Iraq with a real chance to maintain a progressive, non-militant political order, it is certainly sensible to just want to stop the hemorrhaging of American servicemen, especially when it does not look like we are getting anything for the terrible loss.

xXx

Comments

[antilapsarian.livejournal.com]

"We think we can just call off the game early, and go back home and watch TV."

Not a bad idea considering the half-assed way we went about it. The problem, I think, is that it DOES work like that and this is a test of our seriousness. We have treated it a bit like a pickup playground game going in. But I think that speaks to the new nature of American power which current admin. doesn't get...you're not going to see another WWII again. That was then, this is now. The world is a more complicated place than the 1940's and you're not going to see a time when it's absolutely clear that we need to throw all our national resources behind a full military operation halfway across the world.

The bottom line is that we can't just win anywhere. Simply put, America is not that powerful and needs to take on a more practical foreign policy to reflect that we're not some absolute authority in the world. We've simply not adapted to localized, "small-issue" defense around the globe.

What I'd like to see is us refocusing our energy, time, and money on domestic matters anyway. I'd be more in favor of making the military a primarily defense force in the literal sense. Hopefully, Iraq will be the last invading force America ever assembles.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

After Iraq, we probably are going back to the days where we limit ourselves to quick fly-over military strikes. Iran may prove to be a test case, though Israel promises to do that job if we don't, and I suppose it may be easier just to let them do the dirty work.

[neowiccan.livejournal.com]

i agree that pulling out looks bad and weak.
but staying means more of our soldiers dead to NO purpose. the fact is, we shouldn't have gone in and unless someone can quickly come up with a real goal that spells 'victory' that we can actually realistically achieve (not something like 'defeat the terrorists where they live' or 'democratize the middle east) we'd just be spending blood in a vain attempt to save face.
sucks either way, but i begrudge every single lost life there, and hope that they haunt every neo-con every night for the rest of their miserable lives.
khairete
suz

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Iraq is the trajedy that promises to keep giving. Dubya's ambition really outstripped his capacity.