I keep re-reading what you write and I keep missing it. Maybe you could restate it in simple terms for us, using numbered bullets or a Microsoft presentation or something.

People who know that we’re in an extremely sticky situation but believe there’s still a chance of turning this around will have a separate set of ideas for going forward.

I’m in the latter camp but there’s an expiration date. For three years, we had been employing the wrong strategy for Iraq, thanks in large part to Bush, Rumsfeld and the generals. The way to succeed is to use a tried and true counterinsurgency methodology, and we finally have a general in command who not only believes in COIN ops, but literally wrote the book on the subject.

To me, the most important thing right now is to give the plan a chance to work (or fail). So far, the plan is only ten weeks old and we won’t be at full manpower until June. Already, sectarian killings have dropped dramatically, and al Qaeda has come to the fore as our primary opponent. We really should know by year end whether the plan works. For me, if there’s no discernible progress by that time, I may just move over to the defeatist camp.

I don’t question the left’s patriotism. I call them the cowards and traitors that they are to their face. There is a very real difference between dissent and giving aid and comfort to an enemy during wartime. I don’t believe for one second that the leftists do not know the difference between the two.

The left has sown the seeds of their own destruction. One of two things is going to happen. The Iraqi government is going to stabilize and the Democrats will flip-flop again and become a complete laughingstock, or, the Democrats will succeed in denying funding to Iraq and get the surrender they want. And, in a few years we will be going back to the Middle East and perhaps Spain and the Balkans and Turkey, and anyplace else that borders that cesspool known as the Middle East, to fight, not a war against ragtag insurgents but a war against millions of hate filled fanatics who are armed with the best WMDs money can buy. The outcome of this war is not in doubt, but the carnage that will be unleashed is terrible to imagine. The Islamic fascists and the left just don’t understand what the U.S. military is capable of. The U.S. military could start in the morning and by mid-afternoon there would be a large smoking crater where the Middle East used to be. And, given the kind of war the Islamic fascists have in mind, that is what the result is going to be. The nuclear blackmarket that the Pakistanis set up is still very much alive and well, putting the father of their nuclear program under “house arrest” was a facade. If the Democrats surrender in Iraq, the worst of the Islamic fascists will fight with Iran for control of the oil and the petro dollars will buy nuclear weapons from Pakistan. And in a few years we will be forced to go back to the Middle East to fight. And after the U.S. military destroys the Islam army in a few days, out of desperation they will turn to their nuclear bombs. Then Islam will cease to exist.

The Democratic party will not survive either turn of events.

So those who believe I was signing on to the Democrats plan for phased withdrawal are simply wrong. In fact, I think it would be a blunder that would make the blunders made the previous 4 years look tame by comparison.

Well, that is just precious. If the Democrat party somehow gets the American military out of Iraq, they will be responsible for a worse blunder / disaster than what has happened in the war up to now.

Amazing. So, what color is the sky in your world? And please, please don’t answer that you can’t tell because of the smoke from 9/11.

Given how the anti-war crowd has essentially determined the war in Iraq is lost on the basis of the deaths of 3300 American soldiers and the 60,000 Iraqi civilians who have subsequently died (95% having been murdered by their own Muslim brethren in acts of terrorism), then by that standard we lost World War II though we’ve deluded ourselves that last 63 years. What with over 292,000 dead American soldiers and civilian casualties in both the Pacific and European theater of operations pegged at around 35 - 40 MILLION, that too must be a disasterous defeat for America … or maybe the Greatest Generation was made of more sterner stuff than us. If perception is reality, then those controlling the perception can determine the reality. That’s why I’m convinced if the American left and the liberal media had been around in World War II, the world would be a far bigger nightmare than it is today with the Third Reich entering its seventh decade and Tojo’s Japan locking us out of any trading relations and the natural resources of the Pacific Rim. Well, at least Vietnam would have never happened, right?

I remind some of the posters here that it wasn’t long after 9/11, that the anti-war war left trying to recover from the stunning defeat of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan began galvanizing their political counter-offensive and began making comparisons between Bush and Hilter, generating ignorant conspiracy theories about “neo-cons” (i.e. Administration Joooooooooooos!) and 9/11 being “an side job” and claiming Bush was sending American soldiers to fight Israel’s war against Muslims (thank you Ms. Cindy Sheehan). And then shortly after that left-wing media blitz terms like “reich-wing”, “kkkonservatives fascists”, “Rethuglicans”, “right wingnuts”, ad nauseam began to find their way into the liberal anti-war lexicon. Yeah, it cuts both ways so how about ditching the faux wounded pride and own up to the rank hypocrisy and ad hominem attacks which also exists on the left side of the aisle in spades.

Also, in earlier debates when conservatives questioned the anti-war left’s often defeatist and divisive policies, we were accused of “questioning their patriotism.” What a strawhorse, particularly in view of the fact that for the last year or so the emboldened anti-war crowd began accusing conservatives of being UNPATRIOTIC for supporting POTUS because … ready for this … he was destroying the country! You see, it wasn’t the anti-war left that was being divisive, but rather it was Bu$Hitler who was provoking liberal Democrats with his divisive policies. What, trying to win a war is “divisive”? I guess it is among those who are essentially claiming the war was lost before we destroyed Saddam’s regime in 21 days. Nothing like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

I have absolutely no problem with honest dissent, the Constitution guarantees that. I have always been exposed to the Mennonite and Quaker tradition of pacifism thoughout my life so I know what constitutes just cause and just war in the context being a true peacemaker/peacekeeper. But I can’t tolerate a “dissent” in good conscience which is based on its own set of lies and partisan boilerplate that is little more than radical ideological divisiveness. Too much is at stake for that kind political opportunism disguised as principle during these perilous times.

Whether a person prefers to stick their head in the sand regarding the “religion of peace” as practiced by the more radical elements of Islamism or simply bash Bush and blame America for every negative twist and turn in a type of global war which has never fought before against a fascist ideology which knows no borders, the fact remains there is a very real struggle between Islamic jihadism and what’s left of the free world and Iraq is presently just one front on that war, just like Afghanistan. Islamic fascism can no longer be ignored, it cannot be wished away and it cannot be appeased. If we do not continue to make a determined stand on the battlefields of the Middle East, where will we fight this war in the coming decades? The frontiers of freedom must extend beyond our own borders or our posterity will suffer for generations to come. Let it never be said of our spoilt brat boomer generation that we prefer appeasement to a determined resistance against such transparent evil which has demonstrated a clear willingness to target innocent civilians in pizzarias and shopping malls. We cannot go back to a pre-9/11 world despite whatever well-intentioned fantasies certain reality-denying utopians might hold. This delusion will only imperil our own security in the coming years in light of an implacable enemy which loves death more than some of us love life and liberty.

A short recon of whatÂ’s out there that might draw your attention….

1) The Democrats aren’t exactly pushing for immediate unconditional withdrawl, are they? As was the talking point a few months ago about the “Slow Bleed”, they advocate a large contingent of US troops in training roles, a large contingent for force protection and special forces (and whatever is deemed necessary) to go after Al-Q in country.

Of course, that doesn’t deal with the (tediously repetitive) fact that they are staying, fighting and dying for a fundamentalist Islamist, murderous, corrupt bunch of anti-Americans.

2) Bush is never going to compromise with the democrats. To get some idea of why not, try out this simple experiment. Given the complete mess that this war has been, given the obvious clues that it was going to be a mess from the start, the rising power of Iran, the weakening of the US, the money and blood spent, the massive civilian casualties, etc,etc, can you admit that the invasion was the wrong thing to do? Can you simply say

“The US would be in a better position if after forcing Saddam to full disclosure of his WMD position, we had packed up our kit bags and gone home”

Or, to put it more simply;

“The invasion was a mistake”

Bush would regard compromise as equivalent to saying that. Like I say, no chance whatsoever.