Iraq and volcanoes
A staircase I passed today here at the main Des Moines library bears the following epic inscription:
I am very much in favor of providing employment for the disabled, and therefore consider it praiseworthy that the City of Des Moines has apparently engaged a schizophrenic to compose such inscriptions. Of course, as far as I can see, the line makes no possible sense whatsoever, but maybe that isn't the point.
Same with the Democratic position on Iraq. Mitt Romney nailed it during the debate at the Reagan Library the other day: to withdraw prematurely from Iraq would be to create a Somalia the size of California in the most explosive region of the world. It would be to leave the Shi'ite south to be annexed by Iran. Turkey- which contains a large Kurdish minority- would immediately face a threat to its own national integrity should the Kurdish North be severed from an Iraqi state- and become free to seek political union with the rest of the ethnic Kurdish nation. The rest of the country would be a playground for al Quaeda, essentially a huge base and training ground where its members could practice blowing up people it doesn't like. All this would come pretty much automatically should the Democrats and the Left get their way, and the United States leave Iraq precipitously. Iraq would be a failed state- and the location of a bloodbath that would resemble Kosovo or Rwanda, but on a far larger scale.
It's not really hard. If we leave Iraq prematurely, we will inevitably have to go back. The prospects for obtaining a stable Iraq may seem slim, but the fact of the matter is that on neither humanitarian nor on geopolitical grounds do we really have a choice. "You break it, you own it," both Colin Powell and Nancy Pelosi famously observed at the beginning of the war- and as much as Ms. Pelosi would like to forget it, she and Sec. Powell were right.
Now, the Democrats know this. Why, then, their zeal for Iraq becoming a failed state- which would be the inevitable outcome of a premature American withdrawal?
Simple. The war is unpopular, and this is politically a winning issue for them.
Even if in foreign policy terms it makes as much sense as observing that to make a city into a season is the same as wearing sunglasses inside a volcano.
TO MAKE A CITY INTO A SEASON IS TO WEAR SUNGLASSES INSIDE A VOLCANO.
I am very much in favor of providing employment for the disabled, and therefore consider it praiseworthy that the City of Des Moines has apparently engaged a schizophrenic to compose such inscriptions. Of course, as far as I can see, the line makes no possible sense whatsoever, but maybe that isn't the point.
Same with the Democratic position on Iraq. Mitt Romney nailed it during the debate at the Reagan Library the other day: to withdraw prematurely from Iraq would be to create a Somalia the size of California in the most explosive region of the world. It would be to leave the Shi'ite south to be annexed by Iran. Turkey- which contains a large Kurdish minority- would immediately face a threat to its own national integrity should the Kurdish North be severed from an Iraqi state- and become free to seek political union with the rest of the ethnic Kurdish nation. The rest of the country would be a playground for al Quaeda, essentially a huge base and training ground where its members could practice blowing up people it doesn't like. All this would come pretty much automatically should the Democrats and the Left get their way, and the United States leave Iraq precipitously. Iraq would be a failed state- and the location of a bloodbath that would resemble Kosovo or Rwanda, but on a far larger scale.
It's not really hard. If we leave Iraq prematurely, we will inevitably have to go back. The prospects for obtaining a stable Iraq may seem slim, but the fact of the matter is that on neither humanitarian nor on geopolitical grounds do we really have a choice. "You break it, you own it," both Colin Powell and Nancy Pelosi famously observed at the beginning of the war- and as much as Ms. Pelosi would like to forget it, she and Sec. Powell were right.
Now, the Democrats know this. Why, then, their zeal for Iraq becoming a failed state- which would be the inevitable outcome of a premature American withdrawal?
Simple. The war is unpopular, and this is politically a winning issue for them.
Even if in foreign policy terms it makes as much sense as observing that to make a city into a season is the same as wearing sunglasses inside a volcano.
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