In It To Win It? I Wish!

(No, not her, I mean us.)

Every time I see an article or post on the subject of winning in Iraq versus simply pulling out, I say, “Damn right!” or “’Bout time someone said it!” or words to that effect. In this case, I’ll say all that and more. (I also made my own modest stab at it, here.)

In today’s WaPo comes “Iraq Retreat Isn’t An Option,” by Liz Cheney, former principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs. What highlights this column for me is the Republican author’s skewering of her own party’s “race to the bottom.” And then she gets down to business:

I’d like to ask the politicians in both parties who are heading for the hills to stop and reflect on these basic facts:

We are at war…

Quitting helps the terrorists…

Beware the polls…

Our soldiers will win if we let them [referencing Blackfive]…

America deserves better. It’s time for everyone — Republicans and Democrats — to stop trying to find ways for America to quit.

In other words, fight the war like you mean to win it, or stand aside and let someone else fight it.

Damn right. Amen. Bravo.

Consider also this review of Mark Steyn’s latest on the war effort by professional contrarian Christopher Hitchens, who’s almost always right on target about the Long War. He gives the best description of why the Western left refuses to defend its own culture, a subject I’ve considered often but never fully answered. He then offers a complementary eight-point plan for victory, and I must say it combines realism, practicality, ruthlessness and cultural vision to a degree that ought to shame the weak-kneed in Congress and elsewhere:

1. An end to one-way multiculturalism and to the cultural masochism that goes with it.

2. A strong, open alliance with India on all fronts, from the military to the political and economic, backed by an extensive cultural exchange program…

3. A similarly forward approach to Nigeria, São Tomé and Príncipe … the location of vast potential oil reserves.

4. A declaration at the UN of our solidarity with the right of the Kurdish people of Iraq and … that in no circumstance will Muslim forces who have fought on our side… find themselves friendless, unarmed, or abandoned.

5. Energetic support for all the opposition forces in Iran and in the Iranian diaspora.

6. Unconditional solidarity, backed with force and the relevant UN resolutions, with an independent and multi-confessional Lebanon.

7. A commitment to buy Afghanistan’s opium crop and to keep the profits out of the hands of the warlords and Talibanists…

8. We should remind those states that are less scrupulous—Iran, Pakistan, and Syria swiftly come to mind—that we know that they, too, have restless minorities and that they should not make trouble in Afghanistan, Lebanon, or Iraq without bearing this in mind…

Damn right. Bravo. A-Men .