Posted by
Jay Noble on Saturday, January 06, 2007 8:55:39 PM
President Bush seems poised to increase the American troop presence in Iraq. The only question appears to be by how many. Already the Democrat leaders of the Congress, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, have declared their opposition. This view is apparently shared by most Democrats and a shocking number of Republicans. Even more disturbing, apparently many of our generals question the measure.
What has become of the political and military leadership in the nation? When and why has it become acceptable in America to admit defeat and walk away from a fight, leaving our allies to the tender mercies of our enemies? It there something in the air or water of Washington that emasculates people? The advocates of the troop increase or "surge," contend that the increase must be substantial and committed for as long as it takes. Sending a few thousand more troops for a limited period is not sufficient. Yet we hear it reported that our generals belief that the United States military cannot sustain a substantial increase. Good grief! If the U.S. Army is incapable of maintaining a army in the field of only 160,000 men for an extended period then the people has been ill-served by the hundreds of billions of dollars which it has expended for that service. How in the world does the Army expect to defend North Korea? Taiwan? Doesn’t the military plan for fighting two wars simultaneously?
One gets the sneaky suspicion that these generals who question the efficacy of sending more troops simply resist the hard necessary to subdue an insurgency. Quick in, quick out, no hard fighting, no casualties. Extended campaigns expose substandard commanders and highlight deficiencies in doctrine and material. Too many generals are invested in standard operating procedure and don’t want reality to intrude on their world. The spirit of George McClellan still lives in some parts of the Army.
Other than the president and Senators McCain and Leiberman, hardly any elected official seems willing to pay the price to secure victory in Iraq. I’m not sure that the president will be able to stand up politically to the pressure to just quit and bring the troops home. Certainly, if all he intends to do is a modest increase below the levels called for by the advocates of the surge in troops, he ensures the mission will fail by starving it of the strength it needs. Unless President Bush is prepared to go the whole way and increase troops levels to the number needed to destroy the insurgency, then by all means don’t send any more troops. And bring home the ones there. There is no purpose in more of our brave men and women dying if the political leadership at home is too cowardly to take the steps necessary to defeat the enemy.
Losing in Iraq will end America’s role as the preeminent power in the world. We will be exposed as a fraud, a paper tiger, a country with the capacity to defeat any enemy but without will to use its power. The cowardice and moral bankruptcy of our political and military elite will plunge us into a internal civil war which will make the recriminations and malaise that followed Vietnam seem tame by comparison. And do not suppose that the enemy will leave us alone. Our blood will be in the water, and the jihadist shark pack will follow the trail here, across the unprotected southern border, to wage war against us on our own soil.
How tragic it is that at this moment in history, when it is so needed, that our well of courageous military and political leadership seems to have run dry. Our only hope is that God in His mercy, as He has so often in the past, will permit a leader of imagination and fortitude to come forth and rally the nation to meet the threats we face.