america can win in iraq if…
by Diego Leiva
Published: April 12, 2008
American can win in Iraq if and only if… the Iraqis want us to. It’s that simple. If the bulk of the population is in favor of an American presence in Iraq, then victory is achievable, our enemies can be subdued and we can clean up the mess we have made. Not only can we correct our greatest foreign policy debacle in recent memory, but assuming a cooperative Iraqi public – we must.
However, if we do not have popular support, then no combination of political pressure, economic subsidies, sophisticated weaponry and dedicated troops can ever yield the result that has eluded us these past 5 years.
In January 1973, Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho reluctantly formalized a ceasefire that put an effective end to U.S. involvement in the region. When the North violated the terms of the Agreement in 1975, Congress blocked President Ford’s attempt to re-supply our allies in the South. The war was over.
Why did the South fall despite over 16 years of direct and indirect U.S. opposition to the North’s communist regime? The answer lies in thousands of years of Vietnamese history. Vietnam had been subordinate to China for millennia, then experienced a brief span of semi-autonomous status until the French took control of the region in the 19th century. The French were replaced by the Japanese during WW II who ceded control to the French once the War ended. When the French were finally expulsed by Communist insurgents the U.S. stepped in to fill the void.
Unfortunately for the United States, we were not treated as liberators, on the whole, but as occupiers. Ho Chi Minh himself admitted that the bulk of his forces were made up of Nationalist not Communist. The U.S. backed a Diem-led government that made wonderful overtures to Democracy but turned out to be little more than a double-speaking totalitarian regime. As we persistently opted to prop up a creep, it became increasingly difficult for the Vietnamese to not view U.S. involvement as simply more of the same – another in a long list of occupiers seeking to manipulate domestic resources for foreign gain.
Much like our situation in Vietnam some 30 years ago, the solution to our Middle-Eastern entanglement lies in determining the will of the people and then honoring it. Unfortunately for us, knowing what the Iraqis want by reading reports from the region can yield only an ambiguous result at best. Fortunately for us, we have over 220 years of experience in making the ambiguous, unambiguous. How do we do it? By voting.
If we believe in democracy, why not let it determine our foreign policy? But let me rephrase the question. If we believe that democracy ought to be established in Iraq, why not establish it in Iraq? Let’s put the War in Iraq to a vote in Iraq! If they want us there, we can once and for all silence the naysayers by holding up the election results. On the other hand, if they don’t want us there we can once and for all silence the naysayers by holding up the election results.
All I am saying is give the vote a chance.
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April 15th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Not true, your argument is based on false deductive reasoning. The only reason we have any resistance among citizens in Iraq right now is because of the idea that there is a possibility we will leave it without finishing the job. And who has instilled that thought? The American media and American Democratic Party. Al-qaida, Iran, and all others would throw in the towel if they knew America wasn’t going anywhere. Terrorist and insurgent activity has always existed in order to curve the emotional feel of the masses through propaganda. We have fallen for it as Americans. Your example of vietnam shows your ignorance. No study or poll ever showed vietnamese of the south wanting Northern control. NONE. But just like in Vietnam when you had the Northern Communist paying for peace rallies here, paying for elections, even the Dictator of the time calling representatives of the peace and liberal movement personally to thank them for their support, we have today individuals that are looking for nothing more then attention and an ignorant following. And will you show me just one real study, that shows the majority of Iraqi citizens don’t want the U.S. there untile peace is settled. Seriously for a writer, especially a conservative one, you better get your facts and logic straight. We expect intelligent ideas as conservatives. We aren’t the pot smoking, welfare dependent, illegal aliens, movie star dummies, that go to listen to Barak Obama tell us how we will recieve everything we ever wanted. We are conservatives, start writing like one.
April 16th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Conservatism: A political philosophy or attitude emphasizing respect for traditional institutions, distrust of government activism, and opposition to sudden change in the established order.
- American Heritage Dictionary
I don’t pretend to know what the “traditional institutions” of Iraq are, but I’m sure it’s people do; so let’s ask them which institutions they want to keep and which they want to revise or expel. Since when are conservatives afraid of self-determination? I’ll tell you: Vietnam circa 1956. That was the year that the Nation of Vietnam was suppose to put their choice of government to a national referendum. However, the Diem government with the tacit approval of the U.S. government opposed the vote because they were afraid that the commie-slugs would win. If you are correct in your claim that the North created the Southern resistance with a collection of smoke and mirrors then I will need you to explain to me why ours and the Diem government opposed a national election. If you are also correct in claiming that Iraqis want us there than you would enthusiastically embrace a national referendum because it would silence the critics once and for all.
Personally, I believe that our presence in Iraq is now necessary. Not only is it necessary but it ought to be doubled. However, there is only one way to know if I am right. That is by asking the Iraqis. Because if the bulk of the population hates us, our presence in Iraq is not helping and will never help no matter how many troops we send over, no matter how many bullets and bombs we let fly.