Iraq, I Ran, I Stayed - What To Do

Iraq is not the Vietnam - like quagmire that's being depicted by some media & pundits. Nor is success in Iraq easily seen down the road. The American military & US policy is facing a host of problems.

The primary problem is the Iraqi religious & political divisions that are perpetuating the on-going violence. Iraqis have yet to learn peaceful solutions to on-going disputes. Shiite & Sunni religious sects are at each others throats. Thrown into this are the former Baathists of Saddam's regime who hope to topple the current government & retake the power they lost. There are the nationalists who can't stand the presence of American troops. There are the militias of Sadr & other leaders. Least we forget, there is Al Qada & the foreign volunteers & agents of Iran & Syria who are looking to destabilize the country. And let us not forget about the common thug & criminal who for his own enrichment or for a price adds to the mix of instability.

We are not just fighting one army or group. We are fighting many groups with shared or opposing views & ideas. We are fighting a culture of corruption & dealing with Iraqi army & police who have shifting loyalties or opposing loyalties.

Coupled with all this is an Iraqi government that has been less than stellar in unifying the country & imposing a central government will on areas & groups that need to be focused on. Many of those in the government have open ties with militias & corruption is ever present, even rampant in some quarters.

The US military cannot defeat this hodge podge that is Iraq. Their prime mission was to defeat the Iraqi military & remove Saddam. They did this in a quick & stunning manner, with few casualties. It is the aftermath of insurgents & terrorists & pay-back killings between Iraqis that cannot be defeated & has caused the vast amount of casualties to the US military.

The US removed a brutal dictator & gave birth to the first democracy in the Arab Middle East. We stayed in Iraq to ensure that that democracy took root & the government of Iraq was stable enough to govern Iraq. But we cannot be an extension of that government. We cannot fight the battles for their government, nor for that matter for the Iraqi population. It is up to the Iraqis themselves to do that.

It is up to the Iraqis to come to terms with each other at some point. We cannot be their police, their army or their government for the long haul. We can only do so much. We can only give them the opportunity for a democratic country. What they do with that opportunity is their responsibility. Currently, they are blowing it.

The Iraqi government has put restrictions on our attacks against militias - Shiite in particular. They've released insurgent leaders we've captured. They told us to remove barricades from cordoned-off areas. We are not in their employ.

What we need to do is tell the Iraqi government what we are going to do. We are going to increase troops levels & go after the militias that are a large part responsible for the carnage. We are going to lock down the entire country if we have to. We need to continue training & building the Iraqi military. The Iraqi army can follow or not, but we will do what we have to do to drastically reduce the craziness. We must be ruthless in achieving that goal. Then we hand the keys back to Iraq & leave. What they do after we leave is their business.

We need to put Iran & Syria on notice that they need to stop aiding & abetting foreign infiltrators, they need to lock down their borders & stop facilitating crossings into Iraq or there will be punitive measures taken against them. So far the US has done little to address this issue.

The Iraq Study Group recommendations are at best a joke. Why they think Iran & Syria should be brought into talks to help stop the violence, when they are perpetuating it, is a mystery. Why they think that settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian issue should be linked to Iraq is a mystery. If there was no Israel the radicals in Iran would still be fomenting trouble against the Great Satan.

The media & many Democrats have trashed this war from the get go. They are playing political football because they abhor the current President. They distort, lie & exaggerate in anyway they can to humiliate this President, not caring about the country or its soldiers. They are reprehensible.

We are in the War on Terror for the long haul, like it or not. It is the Islamo-fascists that have chosen this fight, not us. They will not just go away by wishful thinking. We need to crush them in Iraq, Iran or wherever else we need to go to stop them. If we as Americans lose heart to do this, if we are more concerned about the newest iPod or Gameboy then the threat before us, then we are in for some tragic times.