[Dean's World] Dave Price: A Reply To Right Wing Nuthouse

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Posted by Dave Price:
A Reply To Right Wing Nuthouse
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1177960477.shtml


   Rick Moran has [1]become [2]pessimistic on the war, and says time is
   now our biggest enemy in Iraq. Ah, time.
   I remember being told in 2004 Iraqis wouldnât vote or wanted a
   theocracy. In 2005 we were informed by experts that the effort to
   liberalize Iraq was doomed because they couldnât agree on a
   constitution, and in 2006 they couldnât form a government. This year,
   most were confident the Anbari tribes were never going to join the
   police. Thereâs always something for defeatists to point to. Just pick
   up your morning paper and the MSM will be trumpeting the insoluble
   problem du jour.
   Rick says he has reached his new opinon based on the many [3]mistakes
   [4]made in Iraq. Ah, mistakes.
   Why was the fleet at Pearl Harbor caught unawares and defenseless? How
   did hundreds of slow-moving, obsolete torpedo bombers end up being
   sent into utterly hopeless and futile attacks on the Japanese fleet,
   attacks from which almost none returned alive? Who decided to send
   U.S. forces into battle with the underarmed and underarmored Sherman
   tank? Why did we continue to waste the lives of thousands of Marines
   in suicidal frontal assaults against fortified Japanese positions long
   after it was clear the tactic was ineffective? How the hell did
   military planners not anticipate Europe would have hedgerows? Surely
   such incompetence should have doomed our efforts -- but of course it
   did not. Much of the prowess of the Western military tradition is the
   result of its ability to self-critcize and [5]adapt, as is happening
   now in Iraq.
   Also, apparently long-forgotten are the brilliant triumphs of 2003,
   the lightning three-week advance to Baghdad (itself described more
   than once as âbogged down,â and with at least one prominent retired
   general predicting disaster, saying âwe didnât bring enough armor to
   this fightâ), the single glorious âthunder runâ through Baghdad which
   was sufficient to cause the regimeâs forces to collapse. One must
   weigh not only failures, but also successes, including the rise of
   democracy and basic freedoms.
   I agree with Rick that Bush has not been a great communicator on the
   war, which is probably one reason why there is so much excitement
   about [6]Giuliani in the GOP despite his social liberalism. With
   virtually the entire MSM arrayed against the effort, it takes a master
   orator to put things in their proper context and drive perceptions.
   But absent such inspired leadership, rational men and women must
   distill the truth from the morass of agenda-driven journalism
   themselves, and employ empiricism to draw conclusions. This is where I
   think those forecasting defeat fail.
   In Iraq, if not in America, time appears to be on our side, not
   against us: in addition to the progress noted above, every day the ISF
   get a little stronger while the insurgents' relative position gets a
   little weaker. The [7]tide has turned in Anbar. Petraeus is deFOBbing
   our troops into small, local garrisons that create security for Iraqis
   rather than security from Iraqis. Al-Sadr has fled the field and many
   Shia militias are apparently standing down.
   Hereâs a simple point that very few Americans understand: Aside from
   Sunni Arabs, most Iraqis donât think the current situation in Iraq is
   that bad right now. Polling shows this [8]over and over again, with a
   majority saying life is going fairly well. How is that possible, with
   the car bombs going off all over? Well, Iraq isnât the U.S. or Europe:
   if youâre Kurdish or Shia, thereâs a good chance youâre digging your
   relatives out of mass graves put there by the last regime, and youâve
   certainly spent the last few decades without [9]basic freedoms like
   assembly, speech, and pressâor being allowed unrestricted access to
   things like cars, satellite dishes, computers, and cell phones.
   Liberalizing Iraq was never going to be easy, that insufficiently
   foreseen reality the legacy of a brutal kleptocratic police state
   dotted with rape rooms and mass graves, where Sunni Arabs terrorized
   Shia and Kurd with arms bought by oil money stolen out from under
   those it oppressed. We should just be thankful the price of freedom
   for Iraq isnât nearly as bloody as in South Korea, Japan, or Germany
   -- or, as a commenter noted, the American South.

References

   1. http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2007/04/27/time-is-now-the-biggest-enemy-in-iraq
   2. http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2007/04/29/a-clarification-or-two/
   3. http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/01/top_generals_li.html
   4. http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198
   5. http://instapundit.com/archives2/004647.php
   6. http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/repconv04/giuliani083004sp.html
   7. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/29/world/middleeast/29ramadi.html?ex=1335585600&en=56f686052b572dac&ei=5124&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink
   8. http://www3.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.pdf
   9. http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/04/iraqi-kurds-protest-against-honor.html