Ralph Peters understands why things are going awry in Iraq, and what need to be done to correct it. To paraphrase myself, if you are going to wage war, then wage war:
One thing's clear: If we can't enforce security, nothing else matters. So the wisest course of action seems obvious - except to the Washington establishment: Return to a wartime footing.
Focus exclusively on security. Concentrate on doing one thing well. Freeze all reconstruction and aid projects. Halt every program and close every office that doesn't contribute directly to pacifying Iraq.
Someone please call Nancy Pelosi - opening up new day care centers will not pacify Iraq; only killing the killers will . It's called war. If you can't stomach it, then don't wage it. Simple enough? Peters again:
We need an exclusive focus on the defeat of the foreign terrorists, uncooperative Sunni Arabs and Muqtada al-Sadr's Shia thugs. Our enemies control Iraq with fear. We need to make them fear us more than the population fears them.
And that means no negotiations until we have them by the throat - our State Department has been virtually a Fifth Column working against our military with its bumbling givebacks and appearances of weakness:
The worst failure has been that of the State Department. State couldn't get enough volunteers even for its 90-day stints in Iraq - every major program that it insisted on running failed.
Worse, military officers complain that our diplomats in Baghdad undercut their efforts. Even if State were competent, you can't have parallel chains of command in wartime. Our blundering diplos only fall prey to sharper-minded Iraqis.
As for negotiations offering the only way forward, where in the Middle East have negotiations ever produced enduring peace?
Shifting to the Somalian front, diplomats there are trying to snatch victory away from the Ethiopians and hand it back to the Islamists:
...predictably, the U.N. is calling for a ceasefire and negotiations "without preconditions." This could only benefit the Islamic Courts militia, since they are being decisively defeated. Ethiopia is in it to win, nice to see a country in the developing world (or anywhere for that matter) that can take care of business.
The UN will be the death of us all - can we disband them now, or do we have to wait until the Secretary-General dons a headress and a beard?
Finally, on the Iranian front - the UN snactions placed against Iran are so laughably weak that it most likely encouraged the Islamist government to move forward with their nuclear plans; however, the Great Satan stands in their way even now; and they know a real foe when they see one - via Captain's Quarters:
Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh has lamented that the development of Iran's oil industry was suffering from US pressure.
"Iran has been under different sanctions for years and many companies have not been able to cooperate with our country for fear of US pressures," Vaziri Hamaneh said, according to the semi-official news agency Fars on Tuesday.
"They even do not easily deliver some dual-purpose equipment that we had previously bought. They cause trouble for us under different pretexts," he said.
Mr. Vaziri seems to think his sworn enemies should help him aquire the tools needed to help generate additional funds to be used to build weapons for future attacks against said enemy! Well, Vaziri, don't lose all hope - the Democrats will be sworn into office in just a few weeks....
But imagine what we could do if we really brought pressure to bear on Iran - this regime is unloved save for a hardline of no more than 10% of its population; a rapid economic disintergration (blockades, anyone? Hello?) could turn this country topsy-turvey and into the hands of the young (median age: 25!), democracy-minded Persian secularists. Ironically, most of Iran's peoples are fond of America, have little ill will towards Israel, and favor a more modern brand of Islam. But under the boot of the insane Islamist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad , this nation is careening headfirst into war, and threatening to drag the whole of the Middle East into Hades with them.
Someone tell Washington that if we want to win this war, Iran must be confronted, not with a carrot, but with a myriad of sticks. And the sooner it is done, the more lives will be saved. Negotiating now, from a position of near-weakness, would be a disaster.
Wage war to win, folks, or get out of the game and start working on our retreat...oops, sorry, isn't that what the Democrats and the mainstream media are already doing?
No comments:
Post a Comment