Four years after this war began, the fight is difficult, but it can be won. It will be won if we have the courage and resolve to see it through.
Resolve? We’ve had four years of resolve that has resulted in more than 3,200 dead American soldiers — along with thousands who have sustained debilitating injuries — and thousands upon thousands of Iraqis killed in combat and by the chaos that has come to replace Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime.
And yet, after four years of resolve, four years in which we’ve shown too much patience for a deceiptful and incompetent presidential administration, we are being told that more patience is in order, that we must avoid the temptation “to look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude our best option is to pack up and go home.”
That may be satisfying in the short run, but I believe the consequences for American security would be devastating. If American forces were to step back from Baghdad before it is more secure, a contagion of violence could spill out across the entire country. In time, this violence could engulf the region.
I’d like to believe that our presence in Iraq may lead to greater security. But the evidence is just not there. Various reports from the region — from sources unaffiliated with the administration — have indicated that the so-called surge has forced the insurgents underground, but only temporarily.
That has created an illusion of calm, they say, even as the many bombings continue. The Guardian of London, for instance, reports that
Despite the month-long security crackdown in the capital, six people were killed and 30 injured in a car bomb blast in a Shia suburb yesterday. In all, 24 corpses were found in different parts of the city.
None of this should be a surprise. In many ways, it is the American presence that is exacerbating the situation.
H.D.S. Greenway, writing in The Boston Globe last week, made just this point:
When the president and surge proponents talk about restoring law and order to Baghdad, they underestimate the fact that it is the very presence of American soldiers themselves who are sparking the resistance, and thus the chaotic conditions in which criminals can operate, and militias appear to be the population’s only salvation. Americans may try to do their jobs humanely, but the nature of their business is coercive, brutal, and ultimately counterproductive.
So, forgive me for a lack of patience.
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Hank Kalet 