The winning side

Mark Steyn via Instapundit :

Now here's the more important question: Are the Iraqi people on the American side?

Answer: No.

This is very true.

The Iraqis only want to be on the winning side.

Freedom and democracy are nice concepts, but survival is more important.

Iraqis have learned well under Saddam that backing the losing side has dire consequences. They've seen the upstart democrats slaughtered, and they know what happened to rebel Kurds and Shiites.

They question whether Americans will see this through. There is ample reason to believe that America's attention span is limited, and that the US will pull out before Iraq is stable. In such a calamity, anyone who cooperated with the Americans will be massacred.

Most Iraqis - sensibly - are sitting on the fence. Waiting and listening.

Iraqis listen when Kennedy says Iraq is Vietnam, and Byrd talks about pulling the troops out now. When Iraqis hear things like that, no one wants to be on our side. The police won't do there jobs, the soldiers won't fight, the governing council waffles and the thugs like Sadr gain support.

Comments like these are tantamount to treason, because they will get Americans killed.

The battle about whether we will go to war in Iraq is over.

American troops are in the field, and there is no substitute for victory.

The United States will not lose Iraq militarily. Our soldiers know it, and enemies know it. Kidnappings and roadside bombings are not signs of military strength. They are pinpricks, and they have no strategic significance.

This war is ours to lose, and this war is the most important war we have fought since Korea, perhaps even since World War II.

Our enemy's only hope is to cause us - through displays of their sheer barbarity - to lose our will.

On the Left, they have already succeeded.




- posted by total @ 4/13/2004 07:01:00 AM .