Internal Enemies

TOUGH LOVE NEEDED

There are a spate of post election articles from the right examining our position in Iraq.  On Friday Krauthammer [Why Iraq Is Crumbling] took his shot. I have my own theories. In retrospect, I think we made several serious mistakes -- not shooting looters, not installing an Iraqi exile government right away, and not taking out Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army in its infancy in 2004 -- that greatly compromised the occupation. Nonetheless, the root problem lies with Iraqis and their political culture. <snip> Last month American soldiers captured a Mahdi Army death squad leader in Baghdad -- only to be forced to turn him loose on order of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Two weeks ago, we were ordered, again by Maliki, to take down the barricades we had established around Sadr City in search of another notorious death squad leader and a missing American soldier. Kraut sees a "glimmer of hope" if we can create a new coalition based on cross-sectarian alliances: the more moderate Shiite elements (secular and religious but excluding the poisonous Sadr), the Kurds and those Sunnis who recognize their minority status but are willing to accept an important, generously offered place at the table. George H. Wittman [Plain Speaking on Iraq and Iran] sees Iran holding the trump card in our effort to extricate from Iraq. Blah-blah-blah.  We never had a chance. The Bush strategy seems to have been to isolate Iran, the nexus of terrorism,  by flanking them with democratic governments in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Whether it was a good plan is moot.  It was the policy of our elected (and reelected) government, but doomed because of the real axis of evil we face.  When Democrats, for political advantage, and bolstered by a phalanx of leftist media  joined forces with anti-American international groups like ANSWER, the war was lost.  Period. Dance around it all you want.  Write reams of white papers, and volumes of analysis, and one fact remains.  Competing visions for America by the left and right are inimical.  The United States cannot ever again prevail against any enemy as long as the left have any voice in government, and that's been true for 30 years. I know what I'd do.  Call it tough love.