Redstate

By haystack Posted in War — Comments (20) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Why are you doing this to us?

My life and the lives of twenty-five other million Iraqis are evidently not worth trying for.

The full text of his article is over at Pajamas Media, and he genuinely wants to understand how it is our anti-war crowd has come to the conclusion that:

It’s not worth it.Time to leave

More below the fold...

Omar has a valid question, and I should think our friends who have come to power on the voice of an America they maintain has asked for a new direction might be up to the task of answering this in clear, plain terms. I also think they should spell out what they envision will happen when we DO pull out. Omar has a pretty good idea what that will be like, and I challenge them to convince the rest of us this comment isn't a possibility and is something none of us need to worry ourselves with:

If [this war] is not [won] the world as you in the United States know it today (and as we here in Iraq dream for it to become) will exist only in books of history. The forces of extremism that we confront today are more determined, more resourceful, and more barbaric than the Nazi or the communists of the past. Add to that the weapons they can improvise or acquire through their unholy alliance with rogue regimes, combined with their fluid structure and mobility… well, they can be more deadly than any forces we have faced in the past. Much more.
[...]
Just look at this one example of how the terrorists are going to make benefit from the defeatism of democrats. Al-Jazeera, the unofficial mouthpiece of al-Qaeda posted this on the same day the House passed the wretched bill:

Dadullah said: “Thank God, he is alive, we get updated information about it. Thank God, he plans the operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

In no time al-Qaeda and all similarly extremist factions will start boasting about how America is fleeing Iraq under the heavy blows of the “Mujahideen” planned by OBL himself.

The Democrats just offered al-Qaeda victory on a silver plate. For free. An imaginary victory for sure, for now, but it can still be used by al-Qaeda to promote their ideology of death and attract more recruits.

“America’s will can be broken, America is not invincible,” they will say in a thousand ways. Is this the kind of message you want to send to the enemy?

Anyone in the anti-war crowd got an alternate reality for us? Me and Omar would surely love to hear it.

Even though he is in Iraq, the man is astute enough about American politics to make a pretty sensible observation about our "ways" of politicking:

The political game the Democrats are playing has gone farther than it should have. Before they took over the congress they were complaining that there had been no feasible plan for winning the war. Now that such plan exists and thousands of American soldiers are working hard with the millions of good Iraqis to make it work, they wish to turn their backs on it.

I understood that by winning a majority in the legislature the Democrats were supposed to guide America to victory by correcting the mistakes of the past. Obviously I was wrong; they have put all their efforts into making sure the exact opposite outcome happens.

Here, Omar and I couldn't be more strongly in agreement. My only quibble with him would be that he left out a few Republicans. Hagel and Smith in the Senate, and Jones and Gilchrest in the House...but otherwise he's spot on.

In a piece Omar did in the Opinion Journal, Omar suggests that losing is not an option, and here's why:

I am an Iraqi so naturally I am only interested in what's going on within the borders of my country or even the city where I live, just like most people in the Third World are, and this is fine and expected.

But what's neither fine nor acceptable is to see politicians and decision-makers, who are supposed to be the leaders of the new world order, think and behave in the same manner as third world citizens.

All they seem to think about is how to get away from this debilitating conflict in Iraq no matter what the outcome would be. Even worse, few people seem to realize what the amplifications of a defeat in Iraq would be on the Middle East and the rest of our small global village.

The situation is bad in Iraq, it's bad for both Iraqis and Americans alike and the looking at way the war is being managed right now makes me extremely worried about the future of our world. I am that worried that I feel I, or the next generations of my people, won't be safe in this world even if we were born and lived elsewhere.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Iraq might turn into a second Somalia within a year if the situation is allowed to keep descending the way it's doing now.

The Islamic Sharia courts are ruling now in Somalia while in Iraq they function undercover and it's still in our hands to stop them from extending their influence and from becoming the rule instead of the exception they are today.

Let's call the battle for middle east, and I think politicians do not need anyone to explain to them what this part of the world means . . . the outcome of war in Iraq does not affect Iraq alone, a victory means disrupting the ring of terror and extremism the enemies are trying to establish while failure would be equal to allowing them to establish that huge ring, or should I say that gigantic octopus of terrorists and terror-supporting regimes that would extend from Afghanistan in the east to Libya in the west and from Iraq in the north to Sudan and Somalia in the south.

And instead of creating islands of democracy and liberty, connecting them and extend from there to change the world to the better, the enemies would engulf those islands and add them to their multi-jointed entity of terror.

We need the decision-makers to rise above the rhetoric of who's right and who's wrong and focus on protecting the world from falling prey to the vicious enemies of civilization.

We are in the middle of this situation now and losing is not an option.

You know what, maybe the world isn't going to harvest direct benefits from winning the battle of Iraq but the world still has to spare no effort to win this battle, again not because winning will bring direct benefits but because losing here will bring subsequent losses that would no doubt be great.

This sign in Rear Admiral Fox's office describes the desired "End State" situation in Iraq. [h/t Jeff Emanuel, in-country now with Victoria, reporting for Redstate]


It seems clear enough to us that our anti-war movement doesn't see this as possible or worth trying for. Sadly, for the Iraqis, it's just what they need and they are depending on us to help them achieve it.Omar gets the last word here, but catch the passage about the collective gratefulness of the Iraqis should the anti-war crowd get their way:

Instead coming up with ideas to help the US Democrats are trying to stop the effort to stabilize Iraq and rescue the Middle East from a catastrophe.

I am an Iraqi. To me the possible consequences of this vote are terrifying. Just as we began to see signs of progress in my country the Democrats come and say, ‘Well, it’s not worth it.Time to leave’.

To the Democrats my life and the lives of twenty-five other million Iraqis are evidently not worth trying for. They shouldn’t expect us to be grateful for this.

For four years everybody made mistakes. The administration made mistakes and admitted them. My people and leaders made mistakes as well and we regret them.

But now, in the last two months, we have had a fresh start; a new strategy with new ideas and tactics. These were reached after studying previous mistakes and were designed to reverse the setbacks we witnessed in the course of this war.

This strategy, although its tools are not yet even fully deployed, is showing promising signs of progress.

General Petraeus said yesterday that things will get tougher before they get easier in Iraq. This is the sort of of fact-based, realistic assessment of the situation which politicians should listen to when they discuss the war thousands of miles away.

We must give this effort the chance it deserves. We should provide all the support necessary. We should heed constructive critique, not the empty rhetoric that the ‘war is lost.’

It is not lost. Quitting is not an option we can afford—not in America and definitely not in Iraq.

Godspeed Omar, Mohammed, Iraq, and our brave Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines-SOME of us are here for you and praying for your safety and success.