Peters: How To Lose A War

Annie

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Nov 22, 2003
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http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/57943.htm

November 21, 2005 -- QUIT. It's that simple. There are plenty of more complex ways to lose a war, but none as reliable as just giving up.

Increasingly, quitting looks like the new American Way of War. No matter how great your team, you can't win the game if you walk off the field at half-time. That's precisely what the Democratic Party wants America to do in Iraq. Forget the fact that we've made remarkable progress under daunting conditions: The Dems are looking to throw the game just to embarrass the Bush administration.

Forget about the consequences. Disregard the immediate encouragement to the terrorists and insurgents to keep killing every American soldier they can. Ignore what would happen in Iraq — and the region — if we bail out. And don't mention how a U.S. surrender would turn al Qaeda into an Islamic superpower, the champ who knocked out Uncle Sam in the third round.

Forget about our dead soldiers, whose sacrifice is nothing but a political club for Democrats to wave in front of the media. After all, one way to create the kind of disaffection in the ranks that the Dems' leaders yearn to see is to tell our troops on the battlefield that they're risking their lives for nothing, we're throwing the game.

Forget that our combat veterans are re-enlisting at remarkable rates — knowing they'll have to leave their families and go back to war again. Ignore the progress on the ground, the squeezing of the insurgency's last strongholds into the badlands on the Syrian border. Blow off the successive Iraqi elections and the astonishing cooperation we've seen between age-old enemies as they struggle to form a decent government.

Just set a time-table for our troops to come home and show the world that America is an unreliable ally with no stomach for a fight, no matter the stakes involved. Tell the world that deserting the South Vietnamese and fleeing from Somalia weren't anomalies — that's what Americans do.

While we're at it, let's just print up recruiting posters for the terrorists, informing the youth of the Middle East that Americans are cowards who can be attacked with impunity.

Whatever you do, don't talk about any possible consequences. Focus on the moment — and the next round of U.S. elections. Just make political points. After all, those dead American soldiers and Marines don't matter — they didn't go to Ivy League schools. (Besides, most would've voted Republican had they lived.)


America's security? Hah! As long as the upcoming elections show Democratic gains, let the terrorist threat explode. So what if hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners might die in a regional war? So what if violent fundamentalism gets a shot of steroids? So what if we make Abu Musab al-Zarqawi the most successful Arab of the past 500 years?

For God's sake, don't talk about democracy in the Middle East. After all, democracy wasn't much fun for the Dems in 2000 or 2004. Why support it overseas, when it's been so disappointing at home?

Human rights? Oh, dear. Human rights are for rich white people who live in Malibu. Unless you can use the issue to whack Republicans. Otherwise, brown, black or yellow people can die by the millions. Dean, Reid & Pelosi, LLC, won't say, "Boo!"

You've got to understand, my fellow citizens: None of this matters. And you don't matter, either. All that matters is scoring political points. Let the world burn. Let the massacres run on. Let the terrorists acquire WMD. Just give the Bush administration a big black eye and we'll call that a win.

*

The irresponsibility of the Democrats on Capitol Hill is breathtaking. (How can an honorable man such as Joe Lieberman stay in that party?)
Not one of the critics of our efforts in Iraq — not one — has described his or her vision for Iraq and the Middle East in the wake of a troop withdrawal. Not one has offered any analysis of what the terrorists would gain and what they might do. Not one has shown respect for our war dead by arguing that we must put aside our partisan differences and win.

There's plenty I don't like about the Bush administration. Its domestic policies disgust me, and the Bushies got plenty wrong in Iraq. But at least they'll fight. The Dems are ready to betray our troops, our allies and our country's future security for a few House seats.

Surrender is never a winning strategy.

Yes, we've been told lies about Iraq — by Dems and their media groupies. About conditions on the ground. About our troops. About what's at stake. About the consequences of running away from the great struggle of our time. About the continuing threat from terrorism. And about the consequences for you and your family.

What do the Democrats fear? An American success in Iraq. They need us to fail, and they're going to make us fail, no matter the cost. They need to declare defeat before the 2006 mid-term elections and ensure a real debacle before 2008 — a bloody mess they'll blame on Bush, even though they made it themselves.


We won't even talk about the effect quitting while we're winning in Iraq might have on the go-to-war calculations of other powers that might want to challenge us in the future. Let's just be good Democrats and prove that Osama bin Laden was right all along: Americans have no stomach for a fight.

As for the 2,000-plus dead American troops about whom the lefties are so awfully concerned? As soon as we abandon Iraq, they'll forget about our casualties quicker than an amnesiac forgets how much small-change he had in his pocket.

If we run away from our enemies overseas, our enemies will make their way to us. Quit Iraq, and far more than 2,000 Americans are going to die.

And they won't all be conservatives.

Ralph Peters is a retired Army officer.
The Dems are looking to throw the game just to embarrass the Bush administration.
 
CSM said:
Great article...it is superflorous to say I agree with the sentiment wholeheartedly, but I do.

Yeah, I find it frightening that they really do seem willing to cause such harm in the world. Seriously frightening.
 
The Dems are pushing us to defeat. The defeat will trigger a civil war. Not in Iraq. Here in America. I , for one citizen, will no longer live in peace with Democrats. They have no belief in this nation. No belief in this society. No belief in democracy. No belief in capitalism. No belief in Western thought. No belief in God. After they succeed in our defeat to the terrrorists they can be no solution for those that still are Americans but to fight them. I'd like to say I hope I'm wrong but if one party in this country is not content until this country faces defeat before Islamic terrorism then civil war is not only necessary it is inevitable.
 
I'm afraid it's the GOP that's failing us on this one. They have the big stick and aren't using it. If the dems "win" and we leave Iraq in a mess, we have no one to blame but the ones who quit fighting and stopped the agressive approach to dealing with islamo-facisism and that would be the GOP who have gone soft.
 
ThomasPaine said:
The Dems are pushing us to defeat. The defeat will trigger a civil war. Not in Iraq. Here in America. I , for one citizen, will no longer live in peace with Democrats. They have no belief in this nation. No belief in this society. No belief in democracy. No belief in capitalism. No belief in Western thought. No belief in God. After they succeed in our defeat to the terrrorists they can be no solution for those that still are Americans but to fight them. I'd like to say I hope I'm wrong but if one party in this country is not content until this country faces defeat before Islamic terrorism then civil war is not only necessary it is inevitable.

I wish I could say you are wrong. But the people aren't going to take all this crap forever. We have a large segment of the population, one large enough to control a political party, who have such a strong distrust and contempt for the views of the people trying to undermine the defense of the people so they can get their power back. Meanwhile we have the other party that refuses to listen to the people and actually do what they were elected to do.

Things are going to get ugly.
 
I think that Bush needs to hold a national press conference and read this article to the entire nation.

We need to be reminded what fleeing Iraq would mean, now and in the long run. We need to know what message we would be sending to terrorists (and we need a history lesson reminding us that it was our actions after the first Gulf War, the embassy bombings, the USS Cole, Somalia, and the 1st WTC bombing that led to an increased confidence in the terrorists), we need to know that this would be a victory for the terrorists...plain and simple.

We need to be reminded that no nation would ever trust the US as an ally in war again...because they would know we will run when things get ugly.

We also need a strong GOP to stand up and point out that the Dems want us to lose...they want to run...and that they don't care about the consequences, as long as one of the consequences is their victories in 2006 and 2008.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Republicans are going to pander, rather than stand strong.
 
Gem said:
I think that Bush needs to hold a national press conference and read this article to the entire nation.

We need to be reminded what fleeing Iraq would mean, now and in the long run. We need to know what message we would be sending to terrorists (and we need a history lesson reminding us that it was our actions after the first Gulf War, the embassy bombings, the USS Cole, Somalia, and the 1st WTC bombing that led to an increased confidence in the terrorists), we need to know that this would be a victory for the terrorists...plain and simple.

We need to be reminded that no nation would ever trust the US as an ally in war again...because they would know we will run when things get ugly.

We also need a strong GOP to stand up and point out that the Dems want us to lose...they want to run...and that they don't care about the consequences, as long as one of the consequences is their victories in 2006 and 2008.

Unfortunately, it looks like the Republicans are going to pander, rather than stand strong.

No, i dont think the President needs to do it. I think the President of Iraq needs to do it.
 
Avatar4321 said:
No, i dont think the President needs to do it. I think the President of Iraq needs to do it.
I hate to disagree, seems the people of Iraq overwhelmingly are supporting what he and we are doing. The problem is here, Gem is correct.
 

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