"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
That is a loaded statement that needs to be explained. I do not think you can just say that and drive on by.
As you are aware, we can fight the war two ways. We can fight a limited war, in a political strait jacket that is designed to do the following: 1) Topple Saddam from power. 2) Not alienate a very easily humiliated and alienatable people. 3) Set up an Iraqi government as a model for other governments in the region that the people can see and hopefully achieve for themselves through bloodless revolution. 4) Teach them to defend themselves against not only the insurgents that have come, but from the sectarianism that has always been a part of Iraq due to the Shi'ite majority and the Sunni sense of self-importance, and the Kurdish dynamic. 5) To prove ourselves the friends of governments who have supported us like Qatar and Bahrain, Jordan, and U.A.E.
OR...
We can forget the five objectives and declare total war on the region, fight friend and foe alike and get after them like Grant did the South and Eisenhower did the Nazis and McArthur did the Japanese.
Those are your options.
We are not involved in a long drawn out colonial policing operation. What is happening now is necessary to meet those five objectives.
Again...win what? We are winning... the five objectives are being met. I didn't know there was a time table to victory. No army, no matter how great, can meet a predetermined time table so that folks back home can stop being impatient. It's war, man...and we are winning.
I think Mark agrees with you when he writes mockingly, "But when it just seems to be a kind of thankless semi-colonial policing defensive operation with no end . . . I mean, where is the offense in this?""
I have to agree with you on that. If you had a conversation one on one with the average American about Al Sadr then asked that person "If you were Commander in Chief what would you do about him?", I'm inclined to think they would want him captured or dead.
Yet no one at the top including the President seems serious about dealing with Sadr. Rather than allow the troops to be bled by that nutbag day after day, if we're not gonna do anything about the problem, then why are we sticking around? That is the general attitude at this time.
That doesn't make me think we should leave Iraq. They are our ally on the WOT. That is the purpose of why we took out an unfriendly regime there. It would be a waste of the sacrifice that was made by US troops. That's what makes me think if the GOP starts building up the new leadership for 2008 now, we can turn this all around.
The WOT isn't gonna go away, so we need this ally that sits in the center of the Middle East. New Republican leadership needs to help the American People understand that and let them know we will address any threat seriously including nutbags like Sadr.
Amen to that. As of now were locked into holding pattern waiting for the Iraqis to become competent enough and dedicated enough to to do the heavy lifting themselves. God only knows how long that will actually take.