There’s A Quagmire In Iraq All Right…

19 Aug, 2005 by John Hawkins

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Liberals, who always seem anxious to relive the “glory days” of the Vietnam anti-war movement, have frequently exclaimed that Iraq is a quagmire. Believe it or not, they are correct. Iraq is a quagmire all right: for the terrorists.

Of course, you’d never realize this if you just get your news from the mainstream media because they present such a myopic view of Iraq. Every day they talk about the American and Iraqi body count, highlight every bit of negative news, and present no real context of the conflict.

The focus is always on how long can we hold out? Why aren’t we making any more progress? Is there any point in continuing? Yada, yada, yada…

Well, let’s change the focus a bit and look at what’s happening from a different perspective: the perspective of the terrorists.

Currently, they hold no territory, they’re wildly unpopular, they have no open bases of operations and even if they did, they couldn’t hold them. That was proven beyond a shadow of a doubt in Fallujah & when Muqtada al-Sadr’s uprising was crushed.

Furthermore, the sad reality for the terrorists is that they’re supported only by a minority of the minority Sunni population as it is. On top of that, given that the Sunnis don’t intend to boycott the elections this time, the terrorists are doomed to see their allies in Iraq continue to dwindle as more Sunnis become involved in the political process.

Given that’s the case, the terrorists have one strategy left that they can pursue: Drive the United States from Iraq using terror tactics, topple a weak Iraqi government, and then takeover.

So that means roadside bombs, kidnappings, and suicide bombers are their tactics of choice. Those tactics produce casualties, terror, and gory videos, all of which are designed to lessen the confidence of Iraqis in their government, slow progress, and most importantly, influence the American public through media coverage of their activities.

Unfortunately for the terrorists, America has turned out to be considerably more tenacious and resourceful than they expected and that has left the terrorists in a hell of a spot.

You see, the American strategy is to help the Iraqis form a legitimate, stable, and Democratic government that’s capable of handling its own internal security. Once that happens, the window of opportunity for the terrorists will close.

Why?

Because theoretically, the terrorists might be able to create enough political pressure in the States to convince the Americans to leave, but the Iraqis live there, so they can’t cut & run. Instead, the Iraqis are going to stay, fight, and eventually they will greatly reduce the effectiveness of the terrorists or destroy them outright. This is a pattern that has played out time and time again in nations all over the world.

As you can see, it’s not a pretty picture for the terrorists. They can’t make Bush quit, the political process is continuing to move forward, & the Iraqi troops and policemen are becoming more capable by the day.

This is devastating news for Zarqawi & Company because once the Iraqis can stand on their own two feet, the terrorists will be put in a position where they have to keep fighting an embarrassing “can’t win battle” against other Muslims or else they’ll be humiliated and lose prestige throughout the Middle-East as they’re forced to admit defeat.

That is what a quagmire really looks like…