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Losing the War 002:
By Willie Gaffer:
August 22, 2005:
In this piece I want to get to another of those issues I have address many times before. I have to keep after this because no one seems to get it. I speak of the so called war on terrorism and the debacles in Afghanistan and Iraq. We are losing on all three of these fronts. Make no mistake about that. In Afghanistan the enemies of civilization continue to operate and train without impediment. Our puppet government there is totally ineffective. They cannot even protect themselves in their own capital, never mind going into the countryside after the terrorists. We had a golden opportunity to establish an overwhelming presence in Afghanistan, but we bungled it. Instead of overpowering them as we should have we dinked and dunked with too little effort. Now we are paying the penalty for that.
In Iraq, the situation continues to degenerate. The terrorists continue to operate with near impunity. We should need nothing more than the daily news from there to convince us we are losing. It does not matter how many of Hussein's previous henchmen we capture or kill. Hussein is no longer the problem. By invading Iraq, we opened it to the international community of terrorists. We just created another front for them. By any honest measure of international law, the invasion of Iraq by America was a criminal act. It is too late to argue about that now. It is a done deal, but we are paying the penalty for that foolishness.
In addition to the miliary situations in Afghanistan and Iraq, we are faced with an ever increasing escalation of terrorism worldwide. Our friends and allies are under attack. The subway bombing in London and the damage in Egypt are just two new examples. The only thing we can be sure of is there will be more of this. Meanwhile we continue to sit on our butts and wallow in our hedonistic lifestyle. We fret and fuss about gas prices and jobs while our orderly world disintegrates around us. We continue to act as though we were isolated, buffered, and safe from the world at large. Get this! We are not safe. We are losing.
We have completely forgotten the lesson of 9-11. Because of that, we can be sure it will happen again. When it does, will we fuss and fret and be indignant for a few days, then continue as usual? Or, will we finally wake up and realize we are at war. I think it is time to get honest. We are at war, and we have to begin treating it like it really is a war. The president's rhetoric will no longer do. The fools and feather merchants have had their day and we are losing.
Sooner or Later we are going to have to face the music. We cannot have our hedonistic lifestyle as usual and fight an international war on terrorism at the same time. We are stretched very thin and we are putting our troops at great risk just to avoid looking at the truth. Let's pay attention! Why do you think the army cannot recruit enough men? That is not an unrelated item. Our kids are not dumb. Our kids and their parents don't want them to get killed fo nothing. In Iraq and Afghanistan, that is what is happening. Our kids get killed and the situation does not change. We continue to lose the edge.
It is time to settle down and put in enough resources to get the job done. It is going to take a lot of resources and troops for a very long time. Democracy is not going to sprout overnight in a region that has known only primitive repressive governments for centuries. Why can't anyone see that? We need only look at Germany after WWI to see what will happen. We installed a cardboard government there and turned our backs. A few years later we were facing Hitler. It took the second time around and the Marshal plan for us to get that one right.
The same thing will happen in the Middle East unless we have the staying power. We must maintain the stability there until the people get used to democracy. This job is going to take decades, if we do it at all. We need to settle down for the long haul or give it up and get out. As to getting out, I don't see that as an option right now. I think we have to make our stand against world terrorism in those countries or risk losing everything.
So, our only option is to put in enough resources to win decisively. We must put in enough people and resources on the ground to defeat the terrorists in the Muslim world. That is their base. That is where they come from and where they go for resources and training. You must take away their advantage and give them no place to hide. You cannot do that with a handful of troops. You must have overwhelming numbers and firepower. You must be able to dig them out and kill them. Read Che Guavara's book on guerrilla warfare. That's what you are up against. To beat that, you must take the people away from them. You must make it safe for the people to be on your side. You cannot do that with a handful of troops. Yo need convincing numbers.
While we are about taking our stand, there is a potential situation we should be aware of. That is the ever present threat of the rise of Fascism in America. If the terrorism continues, this is a very real possibility. We have already seen a bit of it in some of the recent laws out of Washington. The Patriot Act is one such example. What a dishonest name for what is really nothing more than a tool of repression. Even so, it can get worse because the terrorists are driving us toward anarchy.
When enough people are convinced that our only choice is between the anarchy the terrorists are propagating now and Fascism, most people, including me, will choose Fascism. Whatever the terrorists want, they will not get it. People want stability and they will support absolute repression to get it, if that is the only choice. Right now, it seems to be a possibility. Let us put forth the effort to defeat these international criminals before it comes to that.
The Patriot Act, will seem like part of the Bill of Rights compared to what will happen if we fail in that. All of the ACLU people in the world, with all of their good intentions, will not be able to prevent it. We will get to a situation where suspicion of terrorism will be enough to warrant summary execution. Suspicion of support for terrorism will be enough to get people killed. A lot of innocent people will be killed. So what? A lot of innocent people are getting killed now and terrorism continues. The only difference will be, the terrorists will also be killed. That is why the majority will choose brutal repression. They will choose it because it will work. It worked in Germany and it will work anywhere. I dearly hope we do not come to that.
I think we can avoid it if we act decisively in the Middle East. I believe the only way to deal permanently with this terrorist situation is to democratize the Arab world. There is nothing wrong with the Arab people. We must bring them out of the medieval world of their savage robber baron rulers into the twenty-first century. We must make them equal partners in the international community. When the Arab people truly have equal opportunity, they will no longer listen to the savages amongst them.
Democracy is probably not the ultimate in human organization.
It is the best we have at this time. It is the best vehicle for
human development and growth. It permits and, to some extent,
supports the development of the community and of the individual.
Other forms of human organization do not do that as well and often
do not do it at all. Others, actively repress growth and development.
So, until we evolve to a higher level, representative democracy
is the most viable form of government.
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