THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VI, Issue # 94, May 11, 2004
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
IS IT TIME TO GET OUT OF IRAQ?
OR SHOULD WE STAY & FINISH THE JOB?
By Alan Caruba
FULL STORY:
For some time now, I have been writing that the United States needed to get into the Middle East and “drag it into the 2lst century.”
A nice turn of phrase, but rhetoric does little to change a culture that has been around since the seventh century, when Islam began
and goes back millennia to the biblical days of the nomadic tribes conjuring up new religions.
What do you do, however, when the people you want to help don’t want you to help? Or are fearful of helping themselves, if the
price of doing so is their being killed by the enemies of their new freedom?
The Bush administration is making much of turning over sovereignty to the Iraqis on June 30, but it needs to be a true sovereignty,
the right of Iraqis to run their own nation. The transformation will take awhile and we may well be there a long time. (We still have a
military presence in both Japan and Germany.) We will have to guarantee that effort. It will be worth it. As I have written in the past,
the road to the end of Islamic terrorism runs through Baghdad, Damascus, Riyadh, and ultimately, Tehran.
The United States of America either has the courage to fight on to the end in the very heart of the region that most threatens us,
or we we do not have the necessary intestinal fortitude and shall suffer a much worse fate for our failure to fight this war to a
decisive and satisfactory conclusion -- a conclusion that would be clearly and unambiguously perceived by the populations of
the Islamic world as a total victory for the U.S.A. and its allies and as a total and disasterous defeat for the Fedayeen Saddam, the
al-Sadr radical Shi'ites, and the international Islamic Jihadists.
It is no small irony that we have managed to do something even the Muslims could not do. We have united the Sunnis and the
Shi’ites against us. We have given the entire Middle East an endless series of events with which to portray us as the new infidel
“Crusaders” that have invaded their sacred lands.
At this crossroads in the Middle East wars, we know we have the firepower, but we don’t know if we have patience to see events
through to a true victory. That is one thing of which the Arabs have plenty. Remember how Osama bin Laden waited from 1993 until
2001 to finally bring down the Twin Towers, after the first failed attempt? Consider how long the Palestinians and all the other
surrounding Islamic nations of the Middle East have been waiting to destroy the Israelis? Over a half century!
We have liberated Iraq. Saddam Hussein and his brutal regime are gone. There is much resistance from a small percentage of the Iraqi
population and some Islamic terrorists from other countries who have joined the Iraqi insurgents. Our military is stretched thin.
In addition to our regular forces, we are using National Guard and Reserve units to fight a war in a country the size of California.
We can’t even drive on Iraq's highways without suffering casualties. The insurgents know it. We know it. The enemy will test our
resolve in every way possible.
Though I personally would have already bombed them until the rubble bounced, we have not invaded the “holy cities” of Fallujah
or Najaf. These places are so “sacred” they stockpiled weapons in their mosques! For now our generals wait on orders that may
well determine the future of the conflict in Iraq. In the Middle East, force is understood and respected. This observer does not see
a peaceful alternative.
We are between a rock and a hard place, right now. The U.S.A. dares not be perceived, like the Spanish, as having left out of fear. I
don’t think most Americans would find that acceptable. So long as we remain, however, we will be Iraq’s “occupiers.” This is
unsatisfying to everyone, and recent polls in Iraq indicate the Iraqis want the U.S.A. to leave. It is doubtful, if not impossible, for
the Iraqis to form a new, constitutional democratic government and to secure it without our support.
Senator John Kerry gave a speech recently saying we have to “internationalize” the war, bring in other nations, NATO, et cetera.
Even he can’t really believe we are going to achieve this. Neither the French, the Germans, the Russians, nor the Chinese are going
to join this effort. What bothers me even more is that just a week earlier he was saying he was behind the White House, despite his
criticisms. This guy changes his mind so much and so fast he must bump into himself when he turns a corner.
Is it time to leave Iraq? Our nation’s safety and the great challenge of the Islamic fanaticism bred in the Middle East argues against
this. I recall the Vietnam War, and I am not comfortable with the occasional feelings of déjà vu. However, I don’t think Americans
will accept the taste of defeat again, and leaving now would be a defeat.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Middle East & the Problem of Iraq
Page Two
Page One
The Problem of Rogue States:
Iraq as a Case History
The Middle East & the Arabs
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, Communications Director of the American Policy Center,
and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly
column, "Warning Signs," posted on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center
(www.anxietycenter.com). A compilation of his past col- umns, entitled Warning Signs, is published by Merril Press. In addition
to Warning Signs, Caruba is the author of A Pocket Guide to Militant Islam and The United Nations vs. the United States,
both of which are available from the National Anxiety Center, 9 Brookside Road, Maplewood, New Jersey, 07040.
Copyright 2004 Alan Caruba
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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