- Other Views
- October 17, 2006
- 5 minutes read
How & Why We Can Lose This War
President Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” (From Lincoln’s 1858 acceptance speech for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate from Illinois.)
Iraq is in a conflict between Shiite terrorists and Sunni terrorists who attack each other and U.S. troops – and foreign terrorists who attack everyone. As for the Kurds, they seem to want no part of the internecine violence. The Shiites and Sunnis want to rule the entire country. The Kurds haven’t attacked U.S. troops. Except for the tragic loss of innocent noncombatants’ lives – it would be poetic justice if the Sunnis, Shiites and foreign terrorists destroyed each other.
Lincoln’s warning stands the test of time, and is apropos today. Americans do not like war. It took a lot of provocation, including “The Zimmerman Telegram,” (Germany’s offer to give U.S. land to Mexico, if Mexico attacked the U.S.), to get us into World War I. It took the bombing of Pearl Harbor to get us into World War II. Some Americans were against our “police action” in Korea. Many took to the streets to oppose our Vietnam policy. At the time, some even flew the flag of North Vietnam, the country that was torturing and murdering our soldiers.
Today, there are folks who want the U.S. out of Iraq immediately – no matter what the consequences.
Half of America sees the merits of fighting the Islamo-Fascists in Iraq rather than on American soil. The other half doesn’t seem to understand the difference between fighting in Iraq or on the streets of the U.S. I guess they’ve forgotten what happened on 9/11 in New York City, at The Pentagon and in a field in Pennsylvania. If we leave Iraq prematurely, it will be a victory for the Islamo-Fascists. If they win, everyone who is not of that ilk loses. And that includes China, France, Germany and Russia.
The world needs a coherent policy against Islamo-Fascists.
But first, Americans need to unite against an enemy that wants to destroy every American man, woman and child, whether you’re Republican, Democrat, Independent or don’t even bother to vote.
This is a World War unlike any before, with the exception of the final phase against Japan, when they used suicide-bombers (“Kamikaze”) to sink our ships. We won that war. We can win this one, too. If and when we get the anti-war folks, “the Cindy Sheehan pull-out-now-crowd,” to see the light.
Our Islamo-Fascist enemy is deadly serious. They believe that, if they die while they kill “infidels,” they will get a ticket to Paradise. So far, we have not been as serious in prosecuting this war as they have been in inflicting terrorism. Sure, we have sent troops to Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban. Sure, we have invaded Iraq and toppled a pro-terrorist dictator. But we’ve done this without the full support of the American people. I thought we’d learned that lesson during Vietnam – that we need the American people behind any war we fight, if we plan on winning.
The terrorists have taken note of our failures. Vietnam, where we lost a war on the streets of America, yet won every battle on the field. It wasn’t the Viet Cong who marched into Saigon; it was the North Vietnamese Army. And they did it because a Democrat Congress cut off every cent to prosecute the war. Even money for medical supplies. That means that President Kennedy started the war. President Johnson expanded it. And finally, a Democrat Congress ended it in disgrace. And now, they want to do it again.
The only difference is that, this time, there will be consequences. Vietnam could not attack the U.S. Al-Qaida, and its brother Islamo-Fascist groups: Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, Moslem Brotherhood, etc., already has. And not only on 9/11.
We’ve got to win this war. But first, we’ve got to unite. And then we’ve got to get serious and fight it as if our very lives depended upon winning – because they do. The alternative is surrendering up every freedom Americans have fought and died for since The Revolutionary War.
We should declare war, put people who decide to be traitors after war is declared in prison. And, as in every other declared war, sacrifice a few civil liberties “in the short term” for our lives, our freedom and our sacred honor – and the restoration and expansion of civil liberties in the U.S. and around the world in the long run. Or we can continue to fight this war with one hand tied behind our back. We can listen to the Euro-Cowards and the Islamo-Apologists and the Blame-America-First Crowd -who sound exactly like the far left wing of the Democrat Party. Just like Vietnam, they want to lose. Even if it means living in shame or dying because some Islamo-Crazy decides we weren’t subservient enough to his “superior” religion. And make no mistake about it: the form of Islam’s Shariah law everyone will live under will be Taliban style, with women getting beaten on the street by Religious Police for showing a little too much skin.
When will we know we will win? When our liberal ladies realize that their “women’s lib” mentality cannot square with Islam.
Robert Sandler is a retired advertising executive who frequently writes for The Evening Bulletin.