Something loony from Andy Rooney
Andy Rooney said on "Sixty Minutes" yesterday that President Bush needs to explain to the American people what we are fighting for now in Iraq, now that Saddam is gone.
Apparently Andy Rooney isn't paying attention.
Granted, the war has been badly mismanaged. Granted, we should have had massively more men fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan- even if it meant reinstituting the draft (a step which- however unpopular- will eventually be absolutely necessary if we're going to prevail in our war with Islamofascism). But the reasons why we're still fighting in Iraq- and why bailing out would be a moral and geopolitical disaster- couldn't be more obvious.
Besides fighting to prevent a bloodbath the likes of which Rooney and the others in the "cut and run" crowd can't even imagine- an event which would follow in short order upon our withdrawal- we are fighting to buy the Iraqis themselves time to achieve a security capability which will enable them to take over the task from us while avoiding that bloodbath. Moreover, we are not- contrary to the lie repeated over and over by opponents of the war- in Iraq "indefinitely." We simply don't know what decisions have been made and warnings issued to the Iraqi government by ours. But it is unlikely that the process would be allowed to drag out beyond a year or two. It is doubtful that it would need to. On the other hand, setting a public deadline would simply inform the Islamofascists how long they have to build up their resources for the final push. It would doom our efforts, play into the terrorists' hands, and guarantee that our dead in Iraq would have died for nothing.
Can the opponents of the war really not see that?
This war is a quagmire only in the minds of those determined to see it that way. I grant that for the loved ones of a soldier killed in Iraq, the cost of this war has been infinite. But objectively, our casualties have been smaller than for a similar period of time in just about any war we've ever fought. At the present rate, we'll reach our casualty total for Vietnam (to which the war is often absurdly compared) in the year 2115!
But there's more. Osama bin Laden sees Iraq as a central theatre in his on going war with the United States. Nancy Pelosi, for example, does not.
She's in denial. Follow the link for an explication of the primary reason why we can't cut and run in Iraq- and why we dare not listen to the dishonest and shallow arguments of those whose recommended course would be the greatest disaster imaginable for American national security.
Apparently Andy Rooney isn't paying attention.
Granted, the war has been badly mismanaged. Granted, we should have had massively more men fighting in both Iraq and Afghanistan- even if it meant reinstituting the draft (a step which- however unpopular- will eventually be absolutely necessary if we're going to prevail in our war with Islamofascism). But the reasons why we're still fighting in Iraq- and why bailing out would be a moral and geopolitical disaster- couldn't be more obvious.
Besides fighting to prevent a bloodbath the likes of which Rooney and the others in the "cut and run" crowd can't even imagine- an event which would follow in short order upon our withdrawal- we are fighting to buy the Iraqis themselves time to achieve a security capability which will enable them to take over the task from us while avoiding that bloodbath. Moreover, we are not- contrary to the lie repeated over and over by opponents of the war- in Iraq "indefinitely." We simply don't know what decisions have been made and warnings issued to the Iraqi government by ours. But it is unlikely that the process would be allowed to drag out beyond a year or two. It is doubtful that it would need to. On the other hand, setting a public deadline would simply inform the Islamofascists how long they have to build up their resources for the final push. It would doom our efforts, play into the terrorists' hands, and guarantee that our dead in Iraq would have died for nothing.
Can the opponents of the war really not see that?
This war is a quagmire only in the minds of those determined to see it that way. I grant that for the loved ones of a soldier killed in Iraq, the cost of this war has been infinite. But objectively, our casualties have been smaller than for a similar period of time in just about any war we've ever fought. At the present rate, we'll reach our casualty total for Vietnam (to which the war is often absurdly compared) in the year 2115!
But there's more. Osama bin Laden sees Iraq as a central theatre in his on going war with the United States. Nancy Pelosi, for example, does not.
She's in denial. Follow the link for an explication of the primary reason why we can't cut and run in Iraq- and why we dare not listen to the dishonest and shallow arguments of those whose recommended course would be the greatest disaster imaginable for American national security.
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