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I, for one, was never under the illusion the war in Iraq would be a quick "in and out" affair. I said, from the beginning, that the US was looking at 50 years, or more, oftroops deployed in Iraq. I am beginning to think even 50 years will be a “best guess scenario”.
It is a very, very, tenuous thing to try to decide what you, yourself, would do in someone else’s shoes in a given set of circumstances but … going where angels fear to tread… I think, had I been the President, I would have had Saddam assassinated. I know, I know, Jerry Ford “fixed it” so we can’t do that. Well, the truth is… it can be undone with the stoke of the current president’s pen, and the issuance of Presidential pardons for the “D” boys, sent it to take him out, would have prevented their being brought up on charges later.
That said…. I think the plain truth is… the war was, indeed, about oil. Now, let me hasten to add…I’m not against that. Hell, every time I gas up, I want to invade Saudi Arabia!
Somehow, an important factor in the circumstances surrounding going to war in Iraq, has gotten lost. Way back, before the first shots were fired in Gulf War One, we knew that Saddam was going after the oil fields in Saudi Arabia. Had he been successful… he would have had command of way too much of the world’s oil, that which we, ourselves, as a country needed, and still need, to keep the engine of democracy running. The damage that would have done to our economy is incalculable. I mean… just look at what the high prices on oil have done to us already… and the supply of oil is not even stinted. Only a steep rise in the per-barrel price has “creamed” our national economy. Had Saddam been allowed to invade Saudi Arabia, and there is no doubt that he would have overtaken the Saudis in a matter of days, he would have had a strangle hold on the world’s energy source. We could not allow that to happen.
In the spirit of “full disclosure” let me say that I voted for President Bush… twice. Given the same set of circumstances, and the same set of candidates to choose from… I would do it again. However, I have been greatly disappointed in the President. He has proven to be even less a conservative that we were led to believe. I knew he wasn’t a conservative in the same vain as I, myself, am. He, and his father both, at best, would be referred to as moderates, here in the Carolinas. That is a very strong reason I will not support John McCain in November.
I do not think the war in Iraq has been prosecuted as aggressively as it should have been. I don’t think we used anywhere near the force we could have used and I have no love for “winning the hearts and minds” of an enemy, any enemy. I fault the Commander-in-Chief for that.
Maybe I was mistaken in thinking Iraq was chosen by the US Military as the designated killing fields” for Al Qaeda and the Iranian terrorists. I really think it was… so I am not yet ready to back away from that. Invite them to come in and kill as many of them as we possibly can.
As a former police officer, I can tell you that “back in the day” we did not discourage the bad guys from places they liked to “hang-out”. Why? Because we knew where they were. It beat the heck out of having to canvas an entire city looking for a bad guy when you could simply go to the “Hang-out” and pick him up. I see Iraq in the same way. Encourage them to come in… and once in… kill them. Problem is, as I see it, we have not been as aggressive, in killing them, as we ought to have been. That’s another reason lawyers have no place on a battlefield. War is, indeed, hell. People get killed. And yes, innocent people get killed. If a nation is not able to accept that going to war means death and destruction, then… that nation had better dig a hole and climb into it, and hide, for their days as a nation are numbered.
I see no easy way to disengage with the enemy. In fact I see no way to disengage with the enemy. We are in a fight for our lives as a “Christian” nation. Of course, we can always surrender, as the democrats wish, and become an Islamic nation. I, for one, am nowhere near ready to do that… and never will be. The BIG LIE being sold to the democrat faithful, and other weak willed Americans is… that if a Democrat is elected President they will bring the troops home from Iraq. That is not going to happen. They know it, but they are deliberately lying to America. They may bring SOME troops home… but not many months from then, they will simply be sent right back.
This is not Vietnam. This enemy with which we are engaged does not simply want to occupy Iraq as the North Vietnamese wanted to occupy South Vietnam. The enemy we are locked in battle with today wants TO OCCUPY THE ENTIRE WORLD! They already hold vast portions of it even today. They are the largest religion on the planet! A tenant of their faith says America must die. They will not be swayed from their goal of overrunning America and setting up that worldwide caliphate. And… do not kid yourself… the ONLY thing standing in their way is AMERICA! They will keep coming as long as even one them draws breath! They are within our borders, even now, plotting death and destruction here in America.
(Update) If you are not ready to accept that the US is going to STAY in Iraq, I urge you to read an article entitled: “Air base evidence of shift in plans” by Kevin Maurer of the Fayetteville Observer, Fayetteville, NC. The article was published in today's edition. You’ll find it at:
http://www.fayobserver.com/article?id=289058
So… what to do? Suck it up, and do what Americans have always done. Determine to do whatever it takes to win. I am not the least bit adverse to genocide if it will guarantee the survival of my country or my family. “Extremism in the defense of freedom is no vice”. Goldwater was right. He was right then and he is right now.
But one thing is for sure. We cannot beat this enemy, this threat to America’s freedom, by being divided. We have to be as cohesive, as determined, and fierce, as deadly, as cunning, as focused on killing the Islamofacists and they are toward killing us. They are deadly in earnest about it and so should we be.
So far, we are our own worst enemies in this war.
Look, the “battle” in Iraq is a “pissant war”! We will have been in Iraq 5 years. We have sustained some 4,000 causalities. That is a trifling number of dead in battle. In a place called Cold Harbor, Virginia, 7,000 Americans died in twenty minutes (and the battle wasn’t over!) in the Civil War. On “D” Day nearly 7,000 died on one day in one battle. Any death of an America in battle is a sad thing. But when weighed against the goal of that war, which is to maintain the freedom and security of this nation, it is a very small price to pay.
This experiment we call America is always on the precipice. It is a balancing act to keep her aright. So many are trying, incessantly, to topple us. The ONLY way we are going to keep her standing straight is to pull together to insure her continued existence.
I DON”T have the answers to what ails our country. Like all men of good will, I try to offer, from time to time, “suggestions” I feel, might be, in some small way, helpful. The infinitesimal magnitude of those suggestions makes them trifling I know, but, hey, it is all I can offer.
Longstreet
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