Some Memorial Day thoughts:
That victory was much more than a dignified escape from a sticky predicament. The coalition victory in Iraq was a historical turning point that may well turn out to be comparable to the cannonade of Valmy. It changed the course of world history. We have not done justice to those who gave their lives in Iraq until we recognize the full dimensions of their achievement.
The story of Iraq has yet to be told. It is too politically sensitive for the intelligentsia to handle just yet; passions need to cool before the professors and the pundits who worked themselves into paroxysms of hatred and disdain for the Bush administration can come to grips with how wrongheaded they’ve been. It took decades for the intelligentsia to face the possibility that the cretinous Reagan-monster might have, um, helped win the Cold War, and even now they haven’t asked themselves any tough questions about the Left’s blind hatred of the man who did more than any other human being to save the world from nuclear war.
It may take that long for the truth about the war in Iraq to dawn, but dawn it will. America’s victory in Iraq broke the back of Al-Qaeda and left Osama bin Laden’s dream in ruins. He died a defeated fanatic in his Abbotabad hideaway; his dream was crushed in the Mesopotamian flatlands where he swore it would win.
Read the whole thing.
Look at peoples’ interpretation of the Great Depression or the fall of the Roman Empire. Yesterday’s events are viewed through the prism of today’s ideologies. If the ideology requires a permanent misinterpretation of history, then that’s what will happen.
I read the whole thing this morning and hoped you’d post a link.
Mead is entirely correct though he leaves out – or lightly touches on – one important aspect:
By attacking something dear to the enemy we sucked the enemy in on ground of our choosing, and a time and place of our choosing. They could not allow us to just take over Iraq. They had to fight. Which sapped all their strength, manpower, energy and thought. They were not organized for a fight of this size and style. The attack on Iraq diverted them from their plan. Which is always a good first step. We created a black hole to which they were irresistably drawn, and from which they could not escape.
And, in the end, they lost.
I’m also glad Mead discussed how Presidents have to sometimes try different generals and different tactics, for maybe years, before they succeed. And if you read any history at all, you’ll know that there’s always a certain level of luck.
It appears the intelligentsia has become so broadminded they went flatheaded. Wouldn’t yo know. I just dont understand the fuss sbout Bushess and Reagan. It has always sounded like “Thou protesteth too much” kind of crap to me.It seems the Dem’s will set out try to destroy what they cannot defeat.
A little OT but I just heard an interesting theory. With 9/11 many Americans decided that terrorism was perhaps not such a great idea and they stopped funding the IRA. The IRA has since effectively disappeared due to lack of funding and this has brought much greater peace to Ireland. If true there are all sorts of lessons in there somewhere.
Gregg Says:
May 30th, 2011 at 10:19 am
“By attacking something dear to the enemy we sucked the enemy in on ground of our choosing, and a time and place of our choosing.”
Classic Sun Tzu.
I teach international relations to English-speaking college kids here in Seoul. Three weeks ago,in the USA classes, we talked about the Iraq War. I told them that while it so far had a much better outcome than Vietnam, Iraq II was a CONDITIONAL victory due to the uncertainty about Iranian influence.
M. Gallagher. Seoul
Nah. The IRA didn’t go away because americans stopped funding them. It went away because the leaders got older and tired of the game. Much easier to do politics to steal money.
Sort of to the side of the topic, I notice that Google has no “clever” doodle for Memorial Day. They can come up for something for every other remembrance no one even knows, let alone cares, about. Why not something for the people who served this country, and allowed Google to exist?
F&%# Google.
I knew we would win in Iraq as long as we didn’t abandon the effort. Many pundits kept shouting “we can’t defeat an insurgency!” despite the fact that we pretty much always win against insurgencies, from the earliest Indian wars to wars throughout the Carribean, Central America, the Pacific, and elsewhere. Even North Vietnam had to abandon insurgency, wait till we left, and then launch a conventional armored invasion of the south.
MfK: Check out Bing. They’re much better about the patriotic holidays.
Yes, well, I agree with the magnitude of the victory in Iraq. But don’t hold your breath for academia to acknowledge this fact. We’re still waiting for them to acknowledge that we were in Vietnam for a good cause. If you want to send a lefty spiraling into contortions, in the middle of any tirade about Nam, ask whether they hold the same objections to fighting for the freedom of South Korea. The consistent Marxists will try to argue that the entire peninsula should be ruled by the Democratic People’s Republic. Others will have some shame.
If there were still any money in it at all, somebody would have stepped up to keep it alive.
That’s why there is still organized crime in New York, despite Gotti getting got.
Gregg & Bart,
You’d almost think that the US started WWII by attacking Germany …
Iceman – Bluto tells me the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.