Posted on 04/27/2007 7:04:31 AM PDT by 3AngelaD
In Iraq we have fought a Limited War for Limited Pacification, which has resulted in a perpetual, if limited, war zone. At about $200 million a day, this war may not sound very "limited," but consider where "Sunni insurgents," "Shi'ite militias," and assorted thugs and jihadi groups go at night after a hard day's maiming and killing and IED-ing. They go home to safe houses. Now, ask yourself whether, say, a George Patton or a Curtis LeMay would allow them to wake up again, chow down breakfast and return to maim, kill and IED another day...
Such generals would have seen to it that the enemy's home, his neighborhood, his entire town if necessary, was destroyed, doubtless killing innocent (and not innocent) civilians in the process. Total War. It's ugly and barbaric, but it leads to Total Pacification, not to mention Total Victory, which is supposed to be the point...
Win their allegiance -- is he kidding? I hate to be the one to break it to Gen. Petraeus, not to mention President Bush, but the fact is, in an Islamic war zone, an "infidel" army just isn't going to win Islamic allegiance... portraying jihadist war goals (Shariah, caliphate) as belonging to a "tiny band of extremists" is nuts...
But such PC fantasy fuels hearts-and-minds efforts that go beyond "allegiance"-winning outposts in Iraq as the United States now weirdly cheers on world Islamization to curry Islamic favor. "Just a reminder to the predominantly Muslim-led government in this world," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos at a recent Kosovo hearing, as reported by journalist Julia Gorin. "Here is yet another example that the United States leads the way for the creation of a predominantly Muslim country in the very heart of Europe...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Every time Islam gets more “moderate,” mostly by being forced to share space with another culture that it cannot entirely eradicate for one reason or another, it is sooner or later attacked and overrun by a more orthodox (i.e., “radical”) Islam. This is a constant throughout Muslim history.
And it’s no different now. Diana West is right.
The enemy?
More like taking the fight to fellow Americans, as I see it.
The enemy was, in fact, the new budding BigBroMoFo let loose on America.
I didn’t say “the enemy,” and very deliberately worded my post, “his enemy.” Like I said, love him or hate him, someone of his ilk unleashed in Iraq would put a pretty quick end to a lot of this islamo-nonsense.
OK, apparently he did perceive fellow Americans as his enemy.
The joke of it is that General Petraeus is actually using better rules of engagement than his predecessors.
Now instead of being 100% nice, we are being 95% nice.
Petraeus is right, to a degree. He is, for instance, using alliances with various Sunni Sheikhs to root out foreign terrorists, and that is certainly better than before. And he is not giving a free pass to the shiite militias because they are pals of the political leaders.
But I agree we still aren’t going far enough. And by prosecuting troops for doing their jobs, we are still telling the rest of the military that they’d better be careful not to shoot anyone, or they’re liable to be court martialed. Bush should have intervened right after the surge began, if not earlier, and told the military to put an end to the PC kangaroo courts, by whatever means necessary.
An unfortunate part of our nation’s history is, I believe, that a lot of Americans at the time (on both sides of the conflict) shared his sentiment.
Yep, and obviously these non-thinkers are still with us.
...Only this time, there is an enemy without, anxiously circling like a starved buzzard.
I’d like to meet this lady.
Our forces, although been handicapped and slow, building the Iraq forces to do the job. Building an Army from scratch is not easy and takes lots of time. And much of the control of the extremist is being cleaned up by the Iraqi forces which are doing a great job. Sure there will be terrorist attacks and may even be increasing, but "criminals" do not obey the law, neither here in the US or Iraq.
It would have been easier and taken less time if we had not gone in for Limited war in the first place. See Japan.
Result: instant Democracy! Everyone would be equal because everyone would be dead!"
Have a link?
Ms Diana West is exactly right, winning hearts and minds, doing nation building, and attempting to democratize Muslims are totally impossible unless you take the Islam out of the Muslim first. Not only that, but it’s very counter-productive for us at the same time, since if you lift Muslims up, you are in effect just making it easier and quicker for them to resume their Global Jihad intended to turn the darb al harb into the darb al Isalm.
Our defense against Global Jihadism should be limited to and concentrate only on removing those regimes and entities that still threaten us (i.e., Iran, the Saudis, Pakistan, etc.), no more and no less. Leave it to them to pick up the pieces and if they want to create Taliban style Islamic Sharia States, then so much the better for us because there is no greater path to ruinous poverty than Islamic Sharia States, and a poverty stricken country should be exactly what we are shooting for, since a poverty stricken country can never represent that great of a threat to us. Indeed, our primary priority should be to render them all into poverty ASAP and the more they do it to themselves, the better it will be for us!
Indeed, given the unlikely and unfortunate choice of having to make war between two countries, one being an Islamic Sharia State and the other a modern industrialized state, I’d pick the former over the latter any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
I agree with you. The only thing I would add is that I would not let any of them into this country, and the ones who are here would have to go home.
There’s the umma...and then there’s the ‘other’. That’s it. who will be victorious?
Now my turn: I agree with you!
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