“John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such,” Ms. Psaki [an Obama spokesperson] said. “He’s a supporter of a war that Senator Obama believes should have never been authorized and never been waged.”

This statement was made in response to a radio talk show host who called Sen. McCain a “warmonger” while speaking at an Obama fundraiser; and there you have, in a nutshell, Sen. Obama’s core position on the war: ‘we have to stop fighting terrorists in Iraq because we should not have been in Iraq in the first place’. If this is meant to be an attack on John McCain, the Obama camp could at least try not using logic so flawed that a high school debater could tear it apart.

What does the fact (or assumption) that we should not have gone to Iraq have to do with the clear fact that we are there, and the fact that if we leave before we have laid waste to the enemy we will be showing a weakness in resolve. Everyone with any survival instinct knows that you NEVER show a weakness to an enemy and not being totally committed to victory is a serious weakness. The interesting thing is that both Senators Obama and Clinton know this to be true but still take the position that we need to leave Iraq as soon as possible rather than as soon as it is wise to do so.

The logical disconnect that is creating this ‘retreat over victory’ position on the part of Senators Obama and Clinton is obviously the bloodshed — or rather the American blood that HAS been shed. We’re back again to the flawed logic that says it was very costly for us to get this far so we should go no farther. This ignores the fact that things are turning around in Iraq and they are turning around BECAUSE we have come this far.

Yes, I know that it has taken the lives of 4,308 American fighting men and women to get this far in Iraq over the past 5 years (all but about 800 of them killed in combat). I also realize that this is a statistic that shakes American citizens (rightly so) and has caused ALL OF US (on the Right as well as on the Left) to, at some point in time, wonder if the original invasion of Iraq was the most intelligent thing to do (in my mind, quite honestly, it probably was not).

We must all realize, however, that the original invasion and the original intention behind that invasion are things that have absolutely NO bearing on today’s reality. We have to get beyond that mind set and realize that we have an enemy that: 1) is directly responsible for those 3500 combat deaths and 2) had been consistently attacking the United States for many years before we invaded Iraq.

This last is a very important point and bears restating: terrorists are not attacking the U.S. only because we are in Iraq. Our invasion of Iraq may have been the trigger for the violence of the last five years but it is not even the main point in the terrorist mind.

The United States invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003:

  • The World Trade Center in New York City was bombed by terrorists, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000, 10 years before we invaded Iraq.
  • A terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia at an American office used to train the Saudi Arabian National Guard killed five Americans and two Indians. This was in 1995, 8 years before we invaded Iraq
  • A terrorist car bombing at the al-Khobar towers in the city of Khobar, Saudi Arabia, killed 19 U.S. servicemen and one Saudi and injured hundreds of others, this was carried out in 1996, 7 years before we invaded Iraq
  • In 1998, al Qaeda terrorists executed simultaneous car bombings at U.S. Embassys in the East African capital cities of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya. This was 5 years before we invaded Iraq
  • In 2000 the USS Cole, docked in the port of Aden, Yemen was attacked by al Qaeda terrorists, killing 17 sailors and injuring 39 others; this was 3 years before we invaded Iraq.
  • Then, of course, on September 11, 2001 — a day the majority of Americans will never forget — the World Trade Center was attacked again, this time from the air and, nearly simultaneously, the Pentagon in Washington D.C. was attacked from the air. A total of 2,986 people of all nationalities were killed that day by al Qaeda terrorists — that day 3 years before we invaded Iraq.

The point? Two points actually! The point I have just made is that it should be obvious that our invasion of Iraq did not cause al Qaeda terrorists or other terrorists to hate America. The associated point is that it should be equally obvious that withdrawing from Iraq before the Iraqi government and military are able to cope with extremists and terrorists, will not stop the terrorists from hating America; it will simply inflame their ambitions to destroy America and give them another place to plan their NEXT attack on America.

There will be a next attack! They have been here on our soil before and they will be here again; how much damage they will do the next time is very much dependent on how well we have decimated their forces in the Middle-East and on how much damage we have done, up to that point, to their desire to destroy us.

The United States will accept the flawed anti-war logic of the Left at its own peril.

News Links:

Washington Post: Iraq Report Details Political Hurdles and Future Options

New York Times: Barbed Remark on McCain Sets Off Campaign Dispute

Blog Links:

The Radical Mormon: Odom testifies in favor of complete and immediate withdrawal from Iraq

Black Shards, In Your Eyes, Blinding: Obama Advisor Recommends Keeping Troops in Iraq

Whymrhymer’s P.O.V. can also be found at the My View from the Center at the American Chronicle.

Be Sociable, Share!