Choosing the Wrong Exit

Fire of Liberty

Here's Mackubin Thomas Owens take on on the whole Murtha episode that is churning within Congress and how such talk of setting a timetable for a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq hurts our efforts and presents a message of defeatism to our allies and enemies. In fact, Owens points out that our enemies in Iraq and in al Qaeda in general have been hedging their bets on the eventual crumbling of domestic support amongst the US Congress and its citizens much like it did during Vietnam. See for yourself:

How did the North Vietnamese Communists pull this off? In 1990, North Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap, confirming what he has written in his own memoirs, told Stanley Karnow that "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."

Murtha should know this history; the Iraqi insurgents certainly do, as illustrated by a passage in a letter from al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri to Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, dated July 9, 2005. In this letter, Zawahiri reminds Zarqawi that the war does not end with the expulsion of the American from Iraq. The danger is that the Americans might cut and run before Zarqawi is ready to fill the vacuum.

The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam-and how they ran and left their agents-is noteworthy. Because of that, we must be ready starting now, before events overtake us, and before we are surprised by the conspiracies of the Americans and the United Nations and their plans to fill the void behind them. We must take the initiative and impose a fait accompli upon our enemies, instead of the enemy imposing one on us, wherein our lot would be to merely resist their schemes.

Murtha's proposal would validate Zawahiri's belief that the United States is irresolute and weak and that the Americans will take the first opportunity to "run."

I guess the Democrats can only see President Bush's blood in the water and are willing to throw aside principle and support for a worthy and moral effort in Iraq because the believe they can retake the House in 2006. Maybe they should read more history and folks like Mackubin Thomas Owens before they rush to the exit doors when it comes to Iraq.