January 25, 2007

An interesting take on the War in Iraq

From a former diplomat specializing in the area.  The writer begins:

"Sen. Hillary Clinton declared this weekend, "I'm in to win." Anyone who has watched her remarkable trajectory can have no doubt that she'll do whatever it takes to win the presidency. I wish she felt the same way about the war."
The author of this Op-Ed goes on to point out several basic facts that Mrs. Clinton and her ilk on both sides of the aisle seem to have forgotten:
· We are at war. America faces an existential threat. This is not, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has claimed, a "situation to be solved." It would be nice if we could wake up tomorrow and say, as Sen. Barack Obama suggested at a Jan. 11 hearing, "Enough is enough." Wishing doesn't make it so. We will have to fight these terrorists to the death somewhere, sometime. We can't negotiate with them or "solve" their jihad. If we quit in Iraq now, we must get ready for a harder, longer, more deadly struggle later.

· Quitting helps the terrorists. Few politicians want to be known as spokesmen for retreat. Instead we hear such words as "redeployment," "drawdown" or "troop cap." Let's be clear: If we restrict the ability of our troops to fight and win this war, we help the terrorists. Don't take my word for it. Read the plans of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Ayman Zawahiri to drive America from Iraq, establish a base for al-Qaeda and spread jihad across the Middle East. The terrorists are counting on us to lose our will and retreat under pressure. We're in danger of proving them right.

· Beware the polls. In November the American people expressed serious concerns about Iraq (and about Republican corruption and scandals). They did not say that they want us to lose this war. They did not say that they want us to allow Iraq to become a base for al-Qaeda to conduct global terrorist operations. They did not say that they would rather we fight the terrorists here at home. Until you see a poll that asks those questions, don't use election results as an excuse to retreat.

· Retreat from Iraq hurts us in the broader war. We are fighting the war on terrorism with allies across the globe, leaders such as Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan and Pervez Musharraf in Pakistan. Brave activists are also standing with us, fighting for freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the empowerment of women. They risk their lives every day to defeat the forces of terrorism. They can't win without us, and many of them won't continue to fight if they believe we're abandoning them. Politicians urging America to quit in Iraq should explain how we win the war on terrorism once we've scared all of our allies away....

· Our soldiers will win if we let them. Read their blogs. Talk to them. They know that free people must fight to defend their freedom. No force on Earth -- especially not an army of terrorists and insurgents -- can defeat our soldiers militarily. American troops will win if we show even one-tenth the courage here at home that they show every day on the battlefield. And by the way, you cannot wish failure on our soldiers' mission and claim, at the same time, to be supporting the troops. It just doesn't compute.

Clearly all points that we should never forget, especially that our apparent weakness emboldens our enemies, at home and abroad.

You can not negotiate with Terrorists unless you speak their language: senseless violence and unwavering resolve.  Read the rest of this fabulous piece here.

The author of this piece?  Liz Cheney, former Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.  And yes, that Cheney.

h/t Dafydd

Posted by caltechgirl at January 25, 2007 08:45 PM | TrackBack
Comments

my cousin-in-law, still in afghanistan, has repeatedly stressed how he'd much rather fight the taliban on their land than on ours.

Posted by: wRitErsbLock at January 26, 2007 05:59 AM

You're right. Excellent article.

When I heard Hill say that, I thought "well, who's 'in it' to lose??" Duh. Mrs. Cheney makes an excellent point on that. And many others in this piece.

Posted by: Marie at January 26, 2007 09:44 AM

DOH... make that MS Cheney.

Posted by: Marie at January 26, 2007 09:45 AM

Lynn is exactly right. The press is working as hard as it can to lose the war for us. If Hillary gets elected - their job will be nearly complete. *sigh*

Posted by: Teresa at January 26, 2007 02:59 PM

Hillary will not win. She is too much of a fraud. She comes out hard against the war this weekend, but only because the polls are now heavily against the war. Otherwise, she'd have said nothing.

Posted by: PoliticalCritic at January 29, 2007 08:38 AM