Democrats Want Out

Withdrawal from Iraq must begin by October 1st–that’s what the Dems want (see story). The Dems not only want to begin troop withdrawal on October 1st, but they want to be completely out within six months from October. It’s ridiculous charades conducted as a political ploy. The strategy for the Democrats is failure. If we fail in Iraq, Bush looks bad, and the Democrats can use that as leverage to get back in power. Shortsightedly vying for power, these Democrats don’t realize (or maybe they do) that failure in Iraq will mean greater failures with terrorism and Islamic extremism that may result in huge consequences for our way of life.

Although fighting in Iraq wasn’t about terrorism as much as it was about the threat of weapons of mass destruction, the fight has manifested itself as the focal point of the war on terrorism. It’s in the news every day, it is the front line in the war on terrorism, and Islamic terrorists are flocking to that fight IN IRAQ. Yes, in Iraq. That’s a huge factor to consider in all this. Where will terrorism find its spotlight if we leave Iraq?

Be grateful that it’s not taking place here in America–in your neighborhood. Instead it’s in Iraq, where it will stay unless we stop fighting it there. I’ll give you three guesses as to where it will go from there.

I will admit that the fight in Afghanistan has suffered because Iraq has all the attention. I will say that our strategy, even after the surge has taken full affect, will still have room for improvement.

Granted, Bush is making serious political, military, and global decisions and these decisions are difficult to make with ALL things considered, so my attempt to describe a better strategy shouldn’t hold more weight than that of the President of the United States unless his plan doesn’t work. I cannot say that I have the whole counsel of circumstances within my bounds of consideration. That said, my strategy would involve dividing Iraq back into three separate countries again (it was divided after WWI). The three factions of people, Shi’a, Kurds, and Sunnis, have a difficult time being peaceful with each other. Dividing them would create three separate governments that could rule in a like minded manner. The separation is already geographic and would not be difficult to arrange politically. This would reduce the amount of civil unrest currently occurring in the region.

Another great strategy that is always left out is reporting the number of enemies that have been killed. The news always reports the number of U.S. soldiers killed, but the number of insurgents that have been killed is never mentioned. It’s a psychological knife in the back of the war effort. Tony Snow mentioned on radio that it’s not a numbers game. The goal should not be to tally up the number of dead on the enemy side. I, however, believe that this is an indicator for whether we are winning or losing. By the way, the numbers are definitely in favor of us by comparison to their fatalities with ours. That, my friends, is partly how we know we’re winning.

Finally, our enemy relies heavily on waging a psychological war. The news media snatches up anything a terrorist gives them and parades it all over television for Americans to see. We aren’t in the business of shaming our enemy like they are. Perhaps we should. If we set up news broadcasts into the middle east that shame our enemy, outrage would result, but eventually we’d see a decrease in morale. This is an untested theory, but it seems plausible and is better than limiting free speech in America.

Perhaps you have some ideas that would contribute to creating a better war strategy. Let me know.