For Whom the Bell Tolls

When I started this post, I was sitting in an office that literally stands over the hole in the ground that used to be the site of two of the tallest buildings in the world. You know the story: they didn't come down because of a meteor, a natural disaster, or poor architecture/construction; they came down because a group of 19 radical Muslims, supported by a large network of like-minded individuals, organizations and failed nation-states, decided to bring them down by ramming planes full of civilians into towers full of civilians.

Overall, I think it is really hard for rational people to grasp the mind of a psychopath. Individuals like Ted Bundy and Jeffery Daihmer defy the normal mind that can't even imagine such cold, calculated barbarity. We are shocked when we hear of the horrors of what these men did, but even more horrible is the thought that human beings are actually possible of such atrocities. But, in the case of radical Muslims, how does a rational society get its mind around an entire culture that is completely psychotic?

With the campaign in Afghanistan, we brought the fight back to its origins. A group of non-state actors declared war against America over a decaded ago, but after September 11th, we would no longer wait to "defend" against attacks when and where they were attempted, but would turn and destroy the roots that fed and florished them.

How to fight the War on Terror has been as divisive as the agreement on the name. Some say we are inflaming the Muslims by fighting on their soil, and that we should turn back to more of legalistic, policing strategy in order to keep the fires from raging. Others see that strategy as fundamentally flawed--one that was pursued in the 1990's and failed as fundamentalists attacked American targets worldwide while we responded with limped wristed slaps at best.

Currently, Iran and Syria have demonstrated that they are formidable players on the geo-political scale. Iran has solidfied their influence in the Middle East with a slow build-up of a proxy organization to push their agenda as needed. They've been able to put U.S. policy in the Middle East on trial by initiating a war with a country that, rightfully, we must at least morally support when attacked. Iran has effectively done something that 30 years of American policy fought against--the legitimization of non-state terrorist organization. Syria has funneled weapons and terrorists into Iraq to kill Americans, and into Lebannon to kill Israelis, and they have yet to face a single consequence for it.

The situation on the ground in the Middle East was not something that was going to be solved by a three-week campaign in a push to Bagdad. It wasn't going to be solved by toppling the Taliban and removing al-Qaeda from their haven. While these are important tactical moves, the overall strategy of confronting and eliminating the threat from radical Islamists, and the tyrannical leaders that support them will be an ongoing process that demands patience, tenacity, vision, perserverance, and ultimately, sacrifice.

This is where the Administration has failed miserably. Most Americans do not know the strategic vision of how our two conflicts in the Middle East fit into a broader vision, and regardless of what how they felt about the decision to go there, just how important it is that we succeed now that we are there. Just like in WWII, there are multiple fronts that all converge in one vision: the destruction of the active forces threatening free societies throughout the world.

Iraq is something that has demanded a lot of time, energy and focus, and the ultimate goal of establishing a independent, non-terrorist supporting state was a key step in combating Islamist ideology in the world. We're on our way to trying to make this a reality, but there is more work to do. Unfortunately, many believe that we should pull-out and allow the Iraqis handle their problems themselves. Bobby Bran, a West Point Graduate who went on to train the new Afghan Army, has this to say about the strategic implications of an immediate pull-out:

In the final address of the Combat Studies Institute Symposium (which I do promise to talk about in greater detail), Andrew Krepinevich noted that many Democrats (and even some Republicans) have actually convinced themselves that because Operation Iraqi Freedom began as a "war of choice," they don't understand that it has become a "war of necessity." They don't realize that while Iraq was not the central front in the Long War against jihadist extremism, it has become that central front today. And they truly believe that an immediate withdrawal of Coalition troops in Iraq would not have second- and third-order ramifications for American security-- potentially disastrous ones, such as: even greater Iranian influence over Iraqi Shi'ite political society; Saudi Arabia (which isn't going to allow Iran to de-stabilize their own regime from Iraq) joining with Egypt and Jordan to support the Iraqi Sunnis in order to bolster their own positions; Turkey de-stabilizing the Kurdish regions in order to ensure (militarily, if necessary) that an independent Kurdistan does not become a reality; ceding the information operations campaign to the jihadists, who would be able to claim (with some truth) that they had defeated the infidels and that the future lies not with the moderate Muslims like Al-Maliki and Allawi, but with the radical extremists (talk about a major recruiting boon for them...), and emboldening jihadist terrorists to commit future strikes against Western and American people. Mark my words, an immediate withdrawal-- indeed, any withdrawal before the conditions have been established for the enduring security of Iraq-- is to invite a future US catastrophe.

This war isn't about capturing a flag, taking territory, or even killing a few jihadists responsible for aiding in bringing down the towers that stood a few hundred feet from me in revenge. It is about collectively understanding that there are some people that are so broken, they can't be fixed. We must protect ourselves, and save those who are oppressed by these psychopaths, but it seems as if today, we lack the collective will to keep pushing on.

"Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."