There is an op-ed in the New York Times this morning with the following title: A War We Just Might Win. I highly recommend reading it in its entirety (free login required at nyt.com), but here’s the gist:
Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration’s miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily “victory” but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with.
<snip>
How much longer should American troops keep fighting and dying to build a new Iraq while Iraqi leaders fail to do their part? And how much longer can we wear down our forces in this mission? These haunting questions underscore the reality that the surge cannot go on forever. But there is enough good happening on the battlefields of Iraq today that Congress should plan on sustaining the effort at least into 2008 (emphasis mine- RT).
I have to be honest. I am fiercely opposed to most (all?) of what the Times says, does and stands for because of its undeniably leftist bias; a bias to which it has admitted by the way. Why then be concerned about what they have to say in this case? Simply put, the Times remains an incredibly influential paper. An op-ed such as this- if it is taken seriously- could have an impact on the opinions of individuals whose voices have been the most scathing in their criticism of how things are going in Iraq.
However, for me personally, there is an even more important reason to respond to this editorial in a guardedly optimistic manner. The war in Iraq has had a severely negative effect on my faith in humanity, in several areas. I don’t have much faith in humanity to begin with- I tend to put my faith in other more deserving persons– however, I would like to think that the majority of people in the world are reasonable people who have at least a passing interest in the welfare of their fellow man. Wouldn’t that be just puppy dogs and ice cream?
First there is the spread of billigerent self-pity which characterizes our enemies, the terrorists; a self-pity which justifies all actions in the mind of the person who is ruled by it. I am not surprised that there are people in the world who act on this debased value system, however I am surprised that it has proven so attractive to so many, whether it is in Iraq, Israel, France, or the United States itself.
Secondly, there are our fellow Americans who, against all reason, have invested themselves in failure. It is interesting to note that the fortunes of the Democratic party in 2008 will be dependent on whether or not things continue to get worse in Iraq- if we lose, they win. I am not questioning the patriotism of those on the left who question the war, but their wisdom. There is little certainty in war, but there is one thing of which we can be completely confident. If we pull out of Iraq now, the decent Iraqis who have committed themselves to freedom- the ones who dared to go to the polls and dip their fingers in the purple ink, to believe in the cause of justice against all odds- they will be slaughtered. An American commitment has been made to decent Iraqis. If we break that commitement, they will die. This should be obvious to all. Yet the constant drumbeat from all corners of mainstream media, whether The Times and CNN, or The Daily Show and Colbert Report, is that it is idiotic to even consider trying to make this work. I retort that it is immoral not to!
But I am daring to be optimistic here. Perhaps there is sanity in the world after all. Perhaps even the most belligerently self-commiserate Arabic peoples can eventually understand all that is to be gained from liberalism- and I mean classic liberalism. Perhaps even those committed to defeat cannot resist the urge to hope for victory. As The Times said so well this morning, there is reason to think both might happen.
Important Note: Thanks to Bill Bennett’s show for the post title- I am not nearly so clever to have thought it up on my own. Also, I want to reiterate a link above to an interview with Fouad Ajami by Dennis Prager. Click the link and then click “listen now”- you won’t be disappointed. Ajami is the genius who came up with the phrase “belligerent self-pity”- a phrase which so perfectly describes the attitudes of not only modern terrorists, but that of the perpetrators of most of the particularly heinous crimes throughout history, that everyone must start using it immediately.
Ply the Silent Planet 