He wrote this for the Everett Herald in Washington state - David Broder writes a very thought provoking article titled “Popular Demand Will Eventually End This War”. No one likes seeing the rising death toll of our service men and women lost in Iraq. Everyone would be in favor of a complete pullout, if we knew that the Iraqi government could stand on their own two feet and provide for security of their own people. It does not appear that we are at that point now. The very real debate is whether we will ever get there. One key point seems to be lost in all the focus on Iraq, their government, their security forces and their ability to provide for their own security. The Global War on Terror. Do you believe that there is a Global War on Terror or not? If you don’t think we are involved in this war then we are just engaged in a conflict in Iraq. We can stay or leave and it really is all about our relationship with Iraq. Of course there are those that will say that this just sets up Iran for an annexation of Iraq which leads to a major oil crisis. But let us set aside this argument for the moment and get back to the Global War on Terror question. If you believe that there is a Global War on Terror, then where is the central battlefield of this war? The State Department, National Counterterrorism Center reports on April 13, 2007 that there were 14,338 incident of terrorism in the world in 2006. There were 6,630 incident of terror in Iraq. Fully 46 percent of all terrorist incidents in the world were in Iraq. The central front of the Global War on Terror is in Iraq, just as Osama bid Laden tells us. If we believe that there is a global war and if the central front is in Iraq, then what will happen if we pull out of Iraq? David Broder closes his article with the statement that “Wars do end when the American people say they must. Dwight Eisenhower was elected president in 1952 with a promise to end the Korean War. Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968 with a promise to end the Viet Nam War. And if George Bush doesn’t do it, a Democrat will win in 2008 with a promise to end the war in Iraq”. Two points about the Broder statement. We still have thousands of troops deployed in South Korea. Since pulling out of Viet Nam, we have not experienced a single attack on US soil by the Viet Cong. If we do choose to leave Iraq before we have defeated the enemy, it will only force the central front of the Global War on Terror to move to a new location. Will that new location be Asia, Africa, Europe or the United States? At this point only Osama bid Laden knows for sure. One thing is certain. If the war moves back to the United States as it was on September 11, 2001, then whomever decides to pull us out of Iraq before the job is done will be directly responsible and accountable to the American people for any new attack. The Global War on Terror is unlike any conventional war we have ever waged. It is much more like the Cold War then either World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Viet Nam War or even the Gulf War. In each of these wars we had a defined central front and a well defined enemy to defeat. That is not the case today. In the Cold War, our goal was to stop the spread of communism. There were several countries spreading communism world-wide and we resisted them for over 50 years until the major player, the Soviet Union, finally fell apart. Communism is not gone but rather has mostly been put back in the box. China, Cuba and others are still out there and we are still resisting the spread of communism. Radical Islam has replaced communism as our greatest threat. Al-Qaida has replaced the Soviet Union as the leader of this threat. We knew fairly clearly where to find the Soviet Union. They had a defined country with defined borders. Al-Qaida has no defined country and no defined borders. This is a different war. Where do you think the central front of the Global War on Terror will be in 2008 after the Democrats pull us out of Iraq? I hope it is not in the United States.
Monday, May 14, 2007
Will the war on Terror be over if the U.S. leaves Iraq?
This article was written by a good friend of mine, former Navy Commander Doug Roulstone, Captain USN (Retired). Doug commanded the nuclear aircraft carrier, U.S.S. Stennis during the first Gulf war.
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This war WILL be fought, P E R I O D! The ONLY choice we have in this fight is WHERE this war is to be fought.
ReplyDeleteWe can wage this war against radical Islamic extremists & others who enable them in either the streets of Baghdad, Tehran, Beirut, Damascus, Pyongyang & Caracas or in the streets of Seattle, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami or D.C.
But make NO mistake. This was IS going to be fought!
Ok, I will log in with my comments on this subject because I think it does address a major difference between those who support the war and those who don't. That being the fabrication of a global war on terror. No, I do not believe that on 9/11 or at any other period in time did a "terror war" suddenly emerge. Folks, the Middle East has been at war with itself for many more centuries than the U.S. has been in existence. We are talking life-long, ancient, bitter enemies! Since WWII, we have consistently chosen to become strongly, militarily aligned with one group or another over there. It is always going to mean trouble when we stick our noses in places where we just don't belong! Iraq is just the latest example.
ReplyDeleteAre there people who are going to hate us because we side with their enemies? Of course! Nothing new there in the history of mankind. No doubt that was the cause of the 9/11 attack. But to think that they hate us because we are free or democratic or capitalist or Christian is just ridiculous! They hate us because we are the friends of their enemies!
There is not a shred of doubt in my mind that we only fanned the flames of radicalism when we occupied both Vietnam and Iraq. Just as with Vietnam, our only hope for peace is by withdrawing our troops and looking for ways to win in other ways. Perhaps there is a war to be fought -- but it is a war of ideology and principles and not a war to be won by death and destruction.