Some idle thoughts from a self-proclaimed political realist

I was paging through the Washington Post's story on the Bush 43 speech defending the policy on staying the course in Iraq. I don't usually get fired up on political topics, but this is a notable exception. Flame on...

I feel reasonably qualified to speak, having spent a combat tour actually interpreting policy to be accomplished by troops out on the streets of Iraq, and it just amazes me about the logic behind cutting and running.

My thoughts on cutting and running don't stem from wanting to honor the memory of those who have died or been wounded (and I knew/know a few of them personally), although I think that's admirable. From a more bluntly utilitarian view, it goes from what happens should the United States leave.

One might say there's a civil war already in progress, if sectarian killings are a recurrent danger, especially for those in places like Baghdad. I've had friends tell me their presence (as advisors to an Iraqi national police unit) saved civilians from what would, in America, be considered a hate crime, to kill someone based on their religion.

I shudder to think what would happen were the United States not there - should we leave with work unfinished, to leave the Iraqi government incapable of standing on its own because its own government institutions aren't ready yet. While the circumstances aren't exactly the same, it's worth noting that it took the United States some eleven years after its independence to come up with a functional constitution because the Articles of Confederation weren't cutting it.

I'm sure in my belief that if there was no coalition force to help rebuild Iraq, then it would have become a failed state...and the cost of a failed state is normally military intervention and high-intensity combat operations. While Afghanistan under the Taliban is a recent example of a failed state, Somalia circa 1993 comes to mind instead.

Never mind the fait accompli that would be handed to Al Qaeda and its associated movements, who have been more than willing to take any conceded initiative and then take the fight to the United States anywhere it can - should we lack the fortitude to finish what we started.

I always found Richard Armitage's "Pottery Barn Rule" pointedly appropriate - "you break it, you buy it" - which translates to "we end conflicts on terms of our own choosing." I'd rather that be genuinely the case rather than "because we're a nation of quitters."

While I don't agree with everything this administration does, and think that disbanding the Iraqi Army was one of the most fucking stupid things we ever did in a litany of dumb shit, it's a shame that I don't think the American public can detach itself from the Glass Tit of American Idol or The Real World and understand why perseverance is still, last time I checked, a value.

Oh, and about Hezbollah disarming...that won't happen without someone to compel them to disarm. The Israelis may have lost big in their inability to exterminate Hezbollah in its current campaign, but they don't harbor any illusions about what will happen.

Flame off...