If We Pull Out of Iraq The Enemy Wins

After four years of shock and awe, we have managed to take the goodwill the poured out in our direction after 9-11 and turn it into loathing and hatred. We attacked a country under false pretenses, miscalculated the war at every step of the way, and now our actions are creating the kind of hatred and fanaticism that we claimed would disappear as the result of those actions in Iraq. Unintended consequences they say, this is a new kind of war, a new kind of enemy. But this is the worst kind of piffle it is the refuge of the morally bankrupt. Were  the consequences already endured not so monumental in scope it would make a good philosophical debate among intellectuals and talking heads.

Lets be clear the consequences were clear and foreseeable. After four years over 3,000 of our soldiers are dead more than 20,000 are wounded and we have spent half a trillion dollars. Our accomplishments? A constitution that allows sharia law to trump common, law an insurgency that is more fanatical today than yesterday and a country torn by civil war with over 500,000 dead and 2.5 million refugees pouring into neighbor countries. Oh and did I mention that we are hated and loathed. Would that we were feared and hated.

So the next time I hear if we pull out now the enemy wins or the next time I hear the consequences of failure are unacceptable look me strait in the eye and tell me who is this enemy that wins?

Is it Al Quaida?
Is it the Shiites?
Is it the Sunnis?
Is it the Islamists who pour into Iraq to protect Islam?
Is it the Syrians?
Is it the Iranians?
Is it the Saudis who gleefully explode their young?

The first rule of war is to know who you are fighting and who you are fighting for. We do not know the answer to either of these questions. Sadly we we did not ask them.

What are the consequences of failure? How will they look different than the civil war and the bombed out remains of the cradle of civilization we have created? 

This Blog knows, and most Americans know, that the consequences of staying are unacceptable. The enemy wins every minute that we stay in Iraq. The monster of hatred and fanaticism flourishes with our presence. We cede to them power they do not have without us, and we forfeit our goodwill and essential goodness in our complictness.

Iraq is not and never was the nexus of terrorism. While it is still not too late, fight the right war, the the smart way, use our intelligence, our wise understanding  of the past , and engage our technology to combat terrorism in new ways that will truly bring shock and awe to our the enemy. An enemy who for so long meet everyone of our predictable missteps as if they had the playbook.  Otherwise we run the risk of singing the refrain we are here because we are here because we are here over and over again and then the Enemy really will win.