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 Posted: Tue May 08, 2007 2:37 pm Post subject: Prager:If Entering Iraq Was a Mistake, Leaving Is Worse |
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Commentary by Dennis Prager who always demonstrates a unique ability to cut to the chase on issues facing America. See the entire article for expanded commentary, but I've reformated it to highlight his major points...
| Quote: | If Entering Iraq Was a Mistake, Leaving Is Worse
By Dennis Prager
May 01, 2007
In arriving at their decision that America should withdraw its forces from Iraq, the Democratic Party and the Left around the world regularly make reference to what they regard as America's initial error -- invading Iraq.
<snip>
But even if the war was a major blunder and even if everything the Left charges -- including "Bush lied" -- were true, none of these contentions has any bearing on the question of what should be done now.
The preoccupation of the Left with the alleged wrongness of the war and the alleged deceit of President Bush is another example of passion rather than reason determining a leftist position on a major issue.
A responsible, rational opponent of the war in Iraq and of George W. Bush would say... "...as much as I loathe supporting anything this president does and as much as I oppose this war, I know what is likely to happen if we leave Iraq. So I cannot in good conscience advocate an American withdrawal or fixing a specific date to do so."
In a recent column I argued that the Left rarely asks "What happens next?" when advocating social policy. I offered numerous examples. Withdrawal from Iraq and announcing that America has "lost the war" are the latest and most egregious.
If we leave Iraq:
- It will be a great victory for the most dangerous ideology on earth today. The people running North Korea are presumably as evil as the Islamists. But there is no ideology emanating from North Korea that threatens mankind. We are fighting an ideology, supported by millions of people, that wishes to conquer the world and routinely engages in mass murder of the innocent -- especially the innocent -- to achieve its totalitarian goals.
- No one will trust America's commitment for the foreseeable future.
- The very best Iraqis -- and members of their families -- will be slaughtered like animals.
- It will mean the end of the possibility of the rise of a moderate form of Islam for the foreseeable future, perhaps generations.
- In the Arab/Muslim world, might is revered, and the victorious Islamists will therefore be revered. Moreover, they will have earned the right to claim that they constitute an unstoppable force.
- Iraq will turn into a far more potent terror base than Afghanistan could ever be. One of the major powers of the Arab world, one of the most oil-rich countries in the world, may well be ruled by jihadists.
- Moderate Arab regimes will likely be overthrown by a combination of an emboldened Iran and an Islamist Iraq that regards moderate Arabs and Muslims as loathsome as, if not more so than, Americans and Jews. It is almost inconceivable, for example, that the Jordanian monarchy would long survive an American defeat in Iraq.
- The American military will suffer a crisis of morale that it will not soon overcome.
- And those who have heretofore murdered fellow Muslims will focus their attention on murdering us.
- The people we are fighting...know that the battle for Iraq is the battle for their future -- that if they win in Iraq, they win all over the Middle East and beyond; that if they lose there, America and the West win.
But none of this matters to the Left because Democrats and others on the Left do not ask what will happen if America leaves Iraq. They are certain that the war was wrong, and that, in addition to handing George W. Bush and the Republicans a defeat, is what they seem to care about.
Real Clear Politics |
One observation on Mr. Prager's list...
| Quote: | | In the Arab/Muslim world, might is revered, and the victorious Islamists will therefore be revered. |
Conversely, so would a defeated radical-Islamist insurgency be humiliated/disgraced and American commitment be "revered". This cultural mindset, IMHO, is probably the most ill-considered and underated factor of our Iraq/Afghanistan endeavors. It is crucial to not underestimate its importance.
edit:...and I'll go out on a limb here. Once election '08 is behind us and should a democratic administration take over the reins, they will be as loathe to abandon the Iraqis to a certain fate as is George W. Bush. |
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