Keep up the Honorable Stand in Iraq

Fire of Liberty

Stephen Bainbridge, professor at UCLA Law School and blogger, has a good opinion piece in today's D.C. Examiner which notes why the "cut-and-run" gambit being promoted by Rep. Murtha and Sens. Reed, Levin and Kerry is a definite no-go with regards to Iraq. I'd say that Bainbridge hit the nail on the head on why a continued US military stand in Iraq is a must when he wrote the following:

Bush told new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, "I have come to not only look you in the eye; I'’ve also come to tell you that when America gives its word, it will keep its word. And it'’s in our interests that Iraq succeed... .

And when Iraq succeeds in having a government of and for and by the people of Iraq, you will have dealt a serious blow to those who have a vision of darkness, who don'’t believe in liberty, who are willing to kill the innocent in order to achieve a political objective."”

This is a critical message for both the Iraqis and those of us here at home. As an Army brat growing up during the Vietnam War, I saw the damage our strategy of just declaring victory and going home did to Army morale and prestige, to the tone of our national politics and our nation'’s standing in the world. Later, we cut and ran from Lebanon. More recently, we cut and ran from Somalia. I have no doubt that this pattern of cutting and running emboldened al-Qaida. We simply cannot afford to cut and run from Iraq, lest our foes be emboldened to new and even more devastating attacks. A global hegemon that keeps running away when the going gets tough will not command any respect.

In sum, even if attacking Iraq was imprudent, we have to stay the course. There could be nothing less prudent than cutting and running. Our permanent national interests now require that we win the peace.

The American people seem to get it. They recognize that while we'’re currently losing the war in Iraq, we have not yet lost. Despite the pessimism inherent in the polling data cited above, the same polls find that 60 percent of the American people still think we will succeed and almost half think troops should stay as long in Iraq as necessary.

As Churchill said "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." So thank you Professor Bainbridge for noting the necessity of staying the course in Iraq to reach the end of our mission.