Posted on 12/06/2006 7:25:53 AM PST by presidio9
Popular consensus has it that we are losing the war in Iraq. Robert Gates, the White House nominee to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, stated on Tuesday that the United States was categorically not winning in Iraq. "What we are now doing is not satisfactory," Gates said. Popular consensus also has it that we are losing the war in Afghanistan. "[B]ecause of the Bush administration's inattention and mismanagement," wrote The New York Times editorial board on Tuesday, "even the good war is going wrong."
America has not "won" a major "hot" war since World War II. The Gulf War cannot be considered a full-fledged victory; it returned the situation in the Middle East to the status quo. The aggressor in that war, Saddam Hussein, would remain in power for another dozen years. The Vietnam War was surely a devastating loss. The Korean War ended in stalemate; North Korea, the aggressor in that war, remains militant and dangerous 50 years later.
It has been six decades since we emerged fully victorious from a major "hot" war. This is because the very definition of war has changed. Each modern war is now more of a battle than a war. Tearing out the enemy's motivating ideology by the roots is no longer a nation-centric task. Nazism was located in Germany and Shintoism in Japan. We could defeat both countries and win the war. Fundamentalist Islam, however, spans the globe. Even if we disestablish fundamentalist Islam in Afghanistan and Iraq, we still have not won the war. Afghanistan and Iraq are the equivalents of Okinawa and Utah Beach. Super-national ideologies mean that war is not a local affair, but a global one.
So how do we win a global war? We won the Cold War by waiting out our communist opponents. We could lose the war in Vietnam and still win the broader Cold War. We could stalemate in Korea without losing the fight against communism. Communist ideology was bankrupt, and if we denied them resources (as we did by funding anti-communist forces around the globe and rolling back communism under President Reagan), we would be successful in the long run.
That strategy will not work with fundamentalist Islam. Fundamentalist Islam is not an ideology that will crumble from within. It demands total religious obeisance of its practitioners, regardless of material hardships incurred. And anything but total replacement of fundamentalist Islam by another, friendlier ideology is seen as a victory by the fundamentalists. The Gulf War was not merely a victory squandered; it was a defeat. Denying Iraq oil may have hurt Saddam Hussein, but failing to depose Hussein hurt Western credibility and emboldened Muslims the world over.
Even were fundamentalist Islam internally unsustainable, we could not wait them out. The demographics are not in our favor. As time goes on, there will be more fundamentalist Muslims and fewer liberal Westerners to carry on the fight. Stalemate in Korea and prolonged fighting in Vietnam hurt the cause of communism. Stalemate in Iraq and Afghanistan favors our enemies, who can simply wait (SET ITAL) us (END ITAL) out.
There was one Cold War tactic, however, that remains useful today: suspicion of our enemies. Winning the Cold War relied on anti-infiltration strategy, particularly in Western Europe. Unfortunately, western civilization seems unwilling to acknowledge the growing fifth column in its midst, specifically because recognizing the growing threat would seem "racist." This is a recipe for disaster. If fundamentalist Islam relies on demographics to achieve its ends, ignoring the growing demographic threat in Europe is a crucial error. If fundamentalist Islam relies on proselytizing to spread its views, ignoring that proselytizing in the United States is an unforgivable mistake.
Will America ever win another war? Only if we combine our Cold War vigilance with our World War II ruthlessness. We cannot afford to lose in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and a stalemate is a loss. We cannot ignore demographic trends in the name of multiculturalism -- diversity will only survive in countries that can resist the long-term onslaught of fundamentalist Islam. This will be a long, hard slog, as former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld put it. In today's world, true victory always is.
This is what I keep telling my dad. I thought 9-11 was the threshold, but apparently not. It will take major destruction of a US city caused by a nuclear bomb.
When the financial impact is so great that your average American cannot eat at Applebees every Saturday night for a prolonged period of time then you will see a fight.
As long as we are comfortable and can continue winter vacations at Disneyworld, then we will live in Fantasyland.
Not if socialists are in charge. Heck, they probably secretly crave several US cities wiped out so they can attempt to seize power in that kind of national weakness. Then they would declare war on those who oppose them.
When I started reading this, I thought you meant Dingy Harry! ;-P
That's not "winning a war." If things go to hell in a handbasket after we leave, "going back and doing it again" is a confession that we lost last time. And after a certain point, one has to wonder if it's worth "going back in and doing it again" again.
Isn't Ben Shapiro about 17 years old. A topic a little out of his league.
You are absolutely correct.
Western politicians' greatest fear, spanning the entirety of the political spectrum. (The fact that Islam isn't a 'race' is ignored, naturally). They'd rather be considered criminals than racists, and go to absurd lengths - "Islam means love; it's a religion of peace" - attempting to avoid being so accused.
Which of course only serves to encourage that fifth column.
So you think after Adolf blew his brains out, we should have just gotten out of Germany?
We used to fight wars as a nation but we don't do that any more. These days we send soldiers to fight but do nothing here at home.
During WWII the entire country was heavily involved in the war and that includes people who were opposed. We filled factories with people building the machines and tools of war.
Americans fully understand the concept of war and Americans can kill people and break things on an unbelievable scale, but somewhere along the way to war we forgot America cannot win if America fails to do just as Rush said. It would be of tremendous help if Congress would declare war. At this moment we aren't on 'war footing' in this nation and Congress must be blamed for not placing the nation on war footing. We can win, but we have to have a declaration of war to do what has to be done, and Congress refuses to grant our military the ability to win by refusing to declare war. It was true of the last Congress and it will be true of the coming Congress. IMHO
>>We'll win again but only after the enemy wipes out a couple hundred thousand of us first.<<
That is my take as well.
On a slightly related subject, I just finished Tom Clancy's "Executive Orders" last night. If only the middle east was that easy. I really enjoyed it though. It is actually skewing my perspective of the Middle East much as some dreams can skew your feelings about some things for the first half hour or so after you wake up.
Wrong. The #1 problem is that we, as a nation, tend to value "being nice" over "doing what's right." It affects us everywhere, not just in foreign policy.
A second major problem is that we as a nation are too impatient, too busy, and often too lazy, to learn the facts, and to shoulder responsibilities ourselves ... it's much easier to let activists and professional politicians do all of the heavy lifting. And then we complain when the screw up yet again.
Yep. We have half of this country that doesn't take this war seriously...sort of like the fact that we had a media and groups that didn't take the cold war seriously. Get everybody on the same side and willing to firmly punish treason and leakers and it would be a whole new day.
Amen...short attention spans will not win...
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