Saturday, August 20, 2005
Fighting them over there.
President Bush today in his nationwide radio address restated a longstanding fallacy regarding the Iraq war that needs to be discussed. The notion that we are fighting the terrorists over there rather than over here. There are 3 major objections I can see with this reasoning.
1: This is the equivalent of the presidents early Iraq war challenge to the insurgents to "bring it on." How many times do the terrorists need to hear that our strategic goal in Iraq is to fight them there and not here before they pick up the notion that perhaps they should attack us here, again? The recent bombings in London may not be "here" to most who read this, but to the terrorists we're part and parcel of the same package.
2: We have sacrificed thousands of American lives to fight them there rather than here? What sense does that make? Its sort of like saying, I'd rather not have the car wreck I may or may not get into not be in my neighborhood so I'll intentionally drive my car off a cliff 10 miles away. As long as the terrorists want to kill Americans I guess George is happy they are dying in the Iraqi desert. Besides how would you feel if you lived under the cliff that some stranger ran his car over in order to avoid the chaos in his own neighborhood? Do you think the average Iraqi trying to carry on on his or her life appreciates having to be the front line in the war on terror? This would be like Germany in its struggle against right wing extremism invading Idaho to fight them over there.
3: We are in the process of training thousands of Jihadists through their struggle against the occupation, inflaming the opinion of the Arab world to create more Jihadists and probably leaving a base of operations for them after our exit from Iraq. We have turned the true terrorists into heros and lost our international standing in the necessary battle against terrorism due to this misguided Iraqi adventure. To somehow assert that we are safer here because of the war in Iraq is counter-intuitive to any but the most ardent koolaid drinkers. This war is making us LESS safe not more.
There are several other reasons why this Bushovick notion is wrong headed. This is mission creep because we didn't originally go there for this reason, we're not really fighting them at all but rather a home grown insurgency they have allied with, and so on. Suffice to say this notion of fighting them over there truly is meant for the consumption of the Koolaid drinkers. DON'T DRINK THE KOOLAID!!
1: This is the equivalent of the presidents early Iraq war challenge to the insurgents to "bring it on." How many times do the terrorists need to hear that our strategic goal in Iraq is to fight them there and not here before they pick up the notion that perhaps they should attack us here, again? The recent bombings in London may not be "here" to most who read this, but to the terrorists we're part and parcel of the same package.
2: We have sacrificed thousands of American lives to fight them there rather than here? What sense does that make? Its sort of like saying, I'd rather not have the car wreck I may or may not get into not be in my neighborhood so I'll intentionally drive my car off a cliff 10 miles away. As long as the terrorists want to kill Americans I guess George is happy they are dying in the Iraqi desert. Besides how would you feel if you lived under the cliff that some stranger ran his car over in order to avoid the chaos in his own neighborhood? Do you think the average Iraqi trying to carry on on his or her life appreciates having to be the front line in the war on terror? This would be like Germany in its struggle against right wing extremism invading Idaho to fight them over there.
3: We are in the process of training thousands of Jihadists through their struggle against the occupation, inflaming the opinion of the Arab world to create more Jihadists and probably leaving a base of operations for them after our exit from Iraq. We have turned the true terrorists into heros and lost our international standing in the necessary battle against terrorism due to this misguided Iraqi adventure. To somehow assert that we are safer here because of the war in Iraq is counter-intuitive to any but the most ardent koolaid drinkers. This war is making us LESS safe not more.
There are several other reasons why this Bushovick notion is wrong headed. This is mission creep because we didn't originally go there for this reason, we're not really fighting them at all but rather a home grown insurgency they have allied with, and so on. Suffice to say this notion of fighting them over there truly is meant for the consumption of the Koolaid drinkers. DON'T DRINK THE KOOLAID!!
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