13 April 2008
Surging More Only Wastes More
The attribution at the end of the OpEd article in the April 11, 2008, Wall Street Journal by Michael Yon states credits his bona fides to his recent book (we know how well even the best of publishers these days vets the words it prints) and to his reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan since 2004 (for which he has financed by soliciting funds directly from readers of his blog). Regardless of Mr. Yon’s credibility, it is clear that neither the 2004-2006 U.S. adventure in Iraq nor the one Congress is reconsidering right now is any more a “war” than the Cold War was. The U.S. won that ideological competition without a direct battle with our primary adversary, the U.S.S.R. The “War on Terrorism” also will only be won on other than military terms.
Iraq is really irrelevant to the fight to protect civil order in the modern liberal democracies. Last year’s reduction in violence there can only reasonably be attributed to a decision by Sunni and Shia Arabs alike that the best way to get the Americans out of their hair (so they can resolve their sectoral strife on their own) is to reduce the killing between the two of them and their attacks on the American invaders at least temporarily. Whether that is a wise decision, only time and the outcome of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election will tell. The longer we wait before pulling out of Iraq, the more wasteful, costly and tragic our attempt to obviate the inevitable bloodshed there will be.
The attribution at the end of the OpEd article in the April 11, 2008, Wall Street Journal by Michael Yon states credits his bona fides to his recent book (we know how well even the best of publishers these days vets the words it prints) and to his reporting from Iraq and Afghanistan since 2004 (for which he has financed by soliciting funds directly from readers of his blog). Regardless of Mr. Yon’s credibility, it is clear that neither the 2004-2006 U.S. adventure in Iraq nor the one Congress is reconsidering right now is any more a “war” than the Cold War was. The U.S. won that ideological competition without a direct battle with our primary adversary, the U.S.S.R. The “War on Terrorism” also will only be won on other than military terms.
Iraq is really irrelevant to the fight to protect civil order in the modern liberal democracies. Last year’s reduction in violence there can only reasonably be attributed to a decision by Sunni and Shia Arabs alike that the best way to get the Americans out of their hair (so they can resolve their sectoral strife on their own) is to reduce the killing between the two of them and their attacks on the American invaders at least temporarily. Whether that is a wise decision, only time and the outcome of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election will tell. The longer we wait before pulling out of Iraq, the more wasteful, costly and tragic our attempt to obviate the inevitable bloodshed there will be.
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