Trying to Take Heart

I've been taking a nice break from blogging, especially about any issues of substance for a little while. There are a lot of things happening in real life that are secondary reasons for these lapses, however, mostly it stems from me trying to get my mind around what is happening to our civilization in the midst of War that it has never fought before.

I guess with a challenge like that, it isn't too much of a stretch to indentify the culprit keeping me awake all night.

The anniversary of the invasion of Iraq gave the opponents of the war the opportunity to jump up and down about the complete mismanagement and debacle of the occupation period. It has become commonplace, particularly in the media, to openly question the President on which cabinet members must be held responsible for these pre-established blunders. While the Washington press corp waxes outrageous, and the rest of the country losing hope fast, there are hundreds of thousands of mostly Americans and Iraqis, combined with a smattering of Brits, Aussies, Poles and others who are fighting for a free society in the midst of one of most backward societies on earth.

Truth be told, I've been losing heart. My faith does not waver towards those that are executing the war, towards the 200,000 Iraqis who have signed up to shed blood to fight for their country, towards the millions that voted to participate in a federal government backed by a constitution and towards the handful of those determined to bring us the truth on the ground through our defeatist media filter. My faith is waning from the American people who I thought were able to hold just enough of us together to fight off the predominantly Leftist onslaught that began on September 12, 2001. If we pull out and lose in Iraq, history will not point towards Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, it will point straight towards the combination of those who didn't have the stomach or the smarts to see through the transparent perfidity engaged by those who aren't in reality anti-war, they are on the side of those that want to kill us.

Notice how the defeatest meme has shifted its focus from the insurgency towards the "imminent" civil war. They completely ignored the United States led effort that trained a homegrown, fully capable fighting force to conduct clear and hold operations in a region that even Saddam Hussein was unable to contain--one that resulted in Sunni Iraqis actually turning to fight against the blood-thirsty members of al-Qaeda. Currently, al-Qaeda is as popular in Iraq as David Duke at Wu Tang Clan concert.

This should be HUGE news, but almost zero attention has been paid to this fact and I think a heavy portion of the fault lies with the Bush Administration for not trumpeting these successes earlier. If anything is constant, it is the anti-war panderings towards any shred of random events they can use to further their meme (for example for an entire year Ayad Allawi was nothing but a puppet of the Bush Administration; then the moment he says something that falls in line with their civil war meme, he's a hero speaking "truth to power"). Bush should know better and kill the snake in its hole.

As far as civil war goes, Iraqis have been in a state of unrest for years. Our entrance into existing this unrest didn't just start 3 years ago, but when we intervened in Desert Storm 15 years ago. The shift from Sunni to Shiite power shifted, and militias and death squads have been nothing new since Saddam's overthrow. In light of this factionalism, the major players within Iraq continue to engage in an admittedly tense, but federal political process--and that includes even the radical fringe elements such as al-Sadr.

As an aside, reading reports of Shiite opinion in Western publications and you'd get the picture that al-Sadr guy has the entire Shiite population at his beck and call. While I find even the small amount of support he gets gravely disturbing considering his Iranian connections, let's keep it in perspective. When he rose up against the Americans in Najaf, he was quickly put down not only by the 11th MEF and the 1st Calvary Division, but also by the citizens of Najaf that saw him as nothing more than a opportunistic punk. His vaunted "Mehdi Army" was dodging bullets from every direction and he eventually negotiated a truce.

The potential civil war in Iraq is still a real possibility. However, the Americans and the Iraqis had to deal with defeating the insurgency first. This has largely succeeded in light of attacks that, although still very bloody, have not been able to affect any long-term strategic goals.

If we hold on, we can win this one. Iraq is holding together despite all odds.

But, the Left sees blood. Not the blood dripping from the mouths of the Iraqis and those fighting for a free society, but blood from the man they would do anything to humiliate: George Bush. I sometimes long for a Lincoln, a Reagan, or a Roosevelt to be at the helm during these times, however in the end I know that despite his inadequacies, he still understands the stakes of this war. The Left would be wise right now to not confuse disapproval with mass approval for their memes. I'm in the disapproval of the President camp right now, but it'll be a cold day in hell before I put a vote forward towards a party that wants to pull us out to settle a cheap political score.

I'm afraid the consequences are too dire if we lose this one, and although we are still very much in position to win this, I'm not sure the decadent West has the chin to see it through.