Recommitting to Iraq...

I'm still not blogging much these days (obviously). I'm a slow writer, and it takes a lot of thinking and revising before I'm able to put together something presentable. I've started quite a number of posts, and thought through several others, but I haven't been able to sustain the energy it takes to put together something semi-coherent. I have been posting comments on various other blogs, however, as that doesn't take as much energy or discipline, primarily because the issue has already been framed for me. Here's a comment I made at Betsy's Page in response to her post about Senator McCain and the Iraq war.

We're at a very dangerous crossroads here. The discussion is shifting from victory in the war to devising a withdrawal strategy.

This war WILL be fought and finished. We can either do it now in Iraq, on a relatively small scale, while we have the upper hand, or we can engage in what amounts to a staged surrender and fight it later, on a much larger scale, with a much greater cost of resources and lives. What we have seen in France and other countries in Europe is just the beginning. Withdrawal from Iraq without a clear victory will simply fuel these types of uprisings.

In addition, we are headed toward a major confrontation with Iran. They are working steadily to acquire nuclear weapons with the intention of attacking Israel and the U.S. We know this not because of intelligence reports, but because their leader has said so clearly and openly. When this confrontation reaches its boiling point, American interests and lives will be infinitely safer with a ripening democracy in Iraq as an ally than they will be if we pull out and allow the insurgency to claim victory and establish a solid foothold from which to wage a real civil war.

When it comes to Iraq, we are primarily hearing two things from the Left: 1) Iraq is a mess; and 2) it's time to talk about pulling out. The truth is that, by any historic standard, our progress is Iraq has been phenomenal, as deadline after deadline, from removal of Saddam to drafting of a constitution to election of officials, has been accomplished on schedule. But even if the naysayers are right, that Iraq is in chaos, why on earth is the correct response to start talking about pulling out and leaving the country in disarray? We should instead be talking about staying resolved and doing whatever it takes to bring about a clear victory. Our military commanders are the best in the world. They have a plan and they are working it. Let's have a little faith in them and our fine American soldiers to do what they do best. If we don't give up on them, they won't let us down.