And Then There's This...

Please don't be offended or take offence, sir, if I suggest that it's perfectly alright to be pessimistic when a war continues for so long against seemingly overwhelming odds.

Do you need reminding that now, more than ever, we all need to "suck it up, rub a little dirt on it, and carry on" each day? Allow me to be the one to remind.

Do you require reminding to read e-mails from CentCom, the DOD, MNF-Iraq, or from any other source available to all, it seems, but the MSM? Alright so it's slow and can only be measured in baby steps, BUT it's still progress. Allow me to be the one to remind.

Our Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are proud of that progress, proud of their role in that progress, and we must be proud and strong for all their sakes.

This is stating the obvious for you, sir, but don't begin looking back now...it wounds your heart faster than any injury.

Take strength in your family, friends, and Military and know that we are here. As is one civilian.

Veritas et Fidelis Semper

There's the rub. It's increasingly apparent that they don't want liberty; they want domination. We don't fully grasp that, and can't face it, so we keep falling short of the goals.

We still severely underestimate the feverish hatred that drives these endless conflicts. Yet, supporting the brutal dictatorships that keep these people in line was the policy that resulted in 9/11.

Can we educate and negotiate them out of that mindset? Sigh. I don't know.

Deb: Thanks.

Jordan: I don't agree that pre-9/11 policies brought this on. However, you do have a point-- we can't go back, and the road ahead is rough no matter which fork you take. This calls for a clear head and strong hand, and it will not be easy.

Quite a contrast between the situation in Iraq and that in Gaza/West Bank. Cheers to Michael Yon for reporting the success a proper counter-insurgent operation is experiencing. Unfortunately, the Palestinian situation is altogether different.

Gaza has descended into open warfare. Palestinians are clamoring to get out of the Strip as soon as possible. Hamas' victory is, at best, pyrrhic because the mainstream Arab countries are condemning Hamas and have explicitly stated they will only deal with Abbas and Fatah. The question is whether Fatah will have any influence whatsoever.

Oddly, little attention is being paid to the ongoing warfare in the northern refugee camps of Lebanon, where the Lebanese army has been engaging a new radical Islamic group. This group, Fatah-al-Islam (Sunni) is dedicated to bringing unity to the Palestinian people and destroying Israel. Syria is so happy this new group showed up, they closed their border with Lebanon. Interestingly, Fatah-al-Islam will be severely limited in its operations by Hizbullah (Shiite) which controls southern Lebanon. Is the enemy of my enemy my friend? Not in the Arab world.

I'm rambling...will the Palestinians turn their back on democracy? Yep. Why? They, or maybe just their leadership, have never had the capacity to admit their own wrongdoing. Also, the only thing which will stop Hamas will be the force of arms. Unfortunately, brutal dictatorships have been the way of the Middle East for 1000+ years. Perhaps the next one will have a bit more regard for the western type morals, policies, and political process we would like, but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm more than a little surprised that no one seems to question the possibility that there is an unseen hand in current events in the region. Hamas has long been the creature of Iran. The current trouble in Lebannon seems to be a product of Iranian involvement. And, oh, by the way, who is the driving force behind most of the Shiite unrest in Iraq?

Haven't the idiots in Tehran repeatedly attempted to turn attention away from their nuclear program by creating unrest in other parts of the Middle East? Is it some strange coincidence that all these things are happening just as the Iranians are approaching a critical period in thier efforts to build thier own bomb?

Might this not be a fruitful area for a little investigation by the intelligence community?

Marine6 Sends

Please don't be offended or take offence, sir, if I suggest that it's perfectly alright to be pessimistic when a war continues for so long against seemingly overwhelming odds.

Deborah Aylward · June 20, 2007 10:35 PM

Good point.

Seemingly overwhelming? Yes.

But insurmountable? Only if we allow defeat at our own hands.

There's the rub. It's increasingly apparent that they don't want liberty; they want domination.
... snip ...
Can we educate and negotiate them out of that mindset? Sigh. I don't know.

jordan · June 21, 2007 03:31 AM

Your exactly right, jordan, that what they want seems to be a lot different that what we seem to want for them.

But can we change their mindset? Only through religous conversion. Personal freedoms such as we embrace are just not a priority in their cultural mindset.

Hmmm, lets see. Arafat, peddler of corrupt, totalitarian government, divisive, sectarian geopolitics, and vile terrorism has been gone for all of 2.5 years now. Hussein, his brother in oppression, has been permanently removed for, why, nearly 6 months. And things have not settled properly.

If I were to feel pessimistic, I suppose I would draw from the plight of the African-America, freed in name by Lincoln and the Union bayonet, but subjugated in law and spirit for still another hundred years.

Or in the Catholic-Protestant wars, running from 1560 to 2005, or so.

And I might well feel pessimistic if the US were on the ground in a less strategic place than Iraq.

Happily, we are in the perfect place to allow the Shia and Sunni to come to some reckoning of their differences, and some decision as to whether Arab Islam will join the 21st century, or follow the radical fringe elements back to the 12th.

(Anyone who hasn't yet might well read The Shia Revival).

Will fortune favor this path? History, as Asimov told so well, is jarred primarily by larger than life characters like Hussein and Arafat. Those two devils being gone, I take some succor in this one fact: God has left Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani alive, well, and leading his substantial, multi-national flock.

FIDO.

I personally feel that I won't see the end of this war in my lifetime. All the same, I try to do all that I can to give me and my soldiers the best chance we have of succeeding. The strategic, the religious, the political, it will take time. I am an optimist.

I also have Megadeth loaded onto my iPod...
"whaddaya mean I hurt your feelings...I didn't know you had any feelings..."

Once again, we are trying to understand the Arab mind through the prism of the USA and Western Europe. We have been trying for a long time (I will go back to WWI) to create "peace" in the middle East.
We still don't understand the culture, the heritage, the hatred that drives many decisions.
Yeah, they don't want freedom. The only common thread I see is that they all want to destroy Israel.
I am not pessimistic, but I believe I am realistic. I believe the term "International Peace Process" is a joke. If there is one, why don't we have tons of UN troops in Africa?
I ramble.
The problem, to me, is one of cultural misunderstanding. It is one of trying to deal with a dog, but treating it like a person.

Oh, by the way, Dave Mustaine and the boys were in Detroit a couple of weeks ago. Didn't go. Don't do that much anymore (won't make it to see the Nuge tomorrow night either), but if they show up in Chicagoland on a drill weekend, watch out...
"If there's a new way, I'll be the first in line...but it better work this time"