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Washington Retreat: WSJ on Murtha & RINOs
"We were not strong enough to drive out a half-million American troops, but that wasn't our aim. Our intention was to break the will of the American government to continue the war."--North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap, in a 1990 interview with historian Stanley Karnow. It's been a bad week for the American war effort, not in Iraq or anywhere else in the field but in Washington, D.C. The American Congress is sending increasingly loud signals of irresolution in Iraq, including panicky calls for withdrawal. There are many lessons of the Vietnam War, but two of the biggest are these: Don't fight wars you don't intend to win, and while American troops can't be defeated, American politicians can be. Like General Giap, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his fellow terrorists understand the second lesson very well, and so his strategy has always been not to capture Baghdad but to inflict casualties in a way that breaks the will of American elites. He'll only be encouraged by this week's show of Beltway duck and cover. There's little comfort in the fact that Senate Republicans stood up Monday to Democratic demands for a specific troop-withdrawal timetable. The GOP Senate leadership still put itself on record that it believes time is running short. No wonder Minority Leader Harry Reid is bragging of having "change[d] the policy of the United States with regard to Iraq." The resolution--which passed 79-19--sounds innocuous enough: It calls for 2006 to be "a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, with Iraqi security forces taking the lead for the security of a free and sovereign Iraq, thereby creating the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq." That's pretty much exactly what the White House has in mind assuming next month's Iraqi elections go smoothly. But the harm of the Senate adding its voice here is that it turns the sound strategy of Iraqification into a suggestion that the U.S. might cut and run if the terrorists can prevent things from moving forward exactly as planned. That was the barely veiled threat from GOP Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, who drafted the resolution. He said he wanted to send a "strong message to Iraqi people and the Iraqi government that you have got to come to grip with your internal problems. . . . It's a signal to the Iraqis that we mean business." Thousands of Iraqis have already died in our joint war against terrorism and thousands more risk their lives every day. And now they get accused of not understanding that this is all serious "business" by a Senator eight time zones from the front lines. Majority Leader Bill Frist did his reputation no good by allowing this spectacle, even if it was intended to give skittish GOP Members a voting alternative to the Democrats' withdrawal policy. The way our enemy will read this is: Even the President's party is losing its nerve. The real profiles in courage were the 13 Republicans who voted "no" and refused to add their voices to this "signal." They are Senators Bunning, Burr, Chambliss, Coburn, DeMint, Graham, Inhofe, Isakson, Kyl, McCain, Sessions, Thune, and Vitter. Far from slowing the withdrawal fever, Mr. Frist's resolution may only have quickened its pace. Yesterday, Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha became the most prominent Democrat so far to join the pullout chorus. Mr. Murtha is esteemed on Capitol Hill, and in these columns, for his Vietnam service. But yesterday's speech urging a withdrawal within six months could have been written by Howard Dean. Mr. Murtha says a key to progress is "to Iraqitize" the war, but his deadline would make it more difficult to get Iraqis into the fight. Though tens of thousands still volunteer to fight, no Iraqis want to die in a losing cause or be rounded up or killed if the Saddamists return to power. Iraqis already have reason to doubt U.S. staying power, going back to the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War and the failure to prosecute Saddam himself nearly two years after his capture. Saddam was trying to put just such a fear into Iraqis when he declared at his recent hearing that "I am still the President of Iraq." Ex-Baathists call themselves "The Party of the Return," and "collaborator" lists are posted in mosques. Death threats are common, and the families of those who join the cause of Free Iraq are targeted. The brother of Adel Abdel Mahdi, the current vice president and a potential prime minister after the elections, was recently assassinated. Every Iraqi thus has to calculate the prospects of victory over the terrorists against the risks of U.S. abandonment. The signal Mr. Murtha is sending is that the risks of abandonment are growing, and that Iraqis might as well sit the fight out. This will only make it harder to train an Iraqi army and thus more difficult for the U.S. to disengage with success. The Murtha pullout could well leave the U.S. facing the terrible dilemma of a far longer stay or leaving in catastrophic defeat. This withdrawal panic ironically comes on the eve of what is likely to be the third successful Iraqi election in a year. This one will elect a permanent government, which will have the legitimacy to assert itself with far more authority. Iraqi political leaders are emerging, sectarian factions are participating in the democratic process, and the U.S. military has done a splendid job under the most trying circumstances. Iraqi forces are getting more capable every day. The Beltway retreat puts all of this progress at risk. We'll grant that the White House could do a far better job of reassuring Americans and thus providing political cover for Congress. It has finally begun to fight back against the Democratic lie that it was "lying" about prewar intelligence. But what's really needed are continued explanations of why the war is justified, the consequences of defeat, and above all repeating again and again a strategy for victory. Among other things, Mr. Bush could draw attention to progress in Iraq by visiting there himself. We are told that among the papers discovered along with Saddam two years ago was one saying that the Baathists-turned-terrorists will know they are winning when a candidate for President of the United States calls for withdrawal from Iraq. Saddam and Zarqawi know the real lessons of Vietnam, even if too many Members of Congress do not. Posted by: Shineque Phomoth8462 2005-11-18 |
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