As violence has abated in Iraq and as additional boots on the ground are reducing the influence of terrorist-inspired militias, common sense would suggest that the U.S. “stay the course” — a cliché that has lost its vitality.  But there are those who contend enough is enough, whether on the Republican side with Specter, Voinovich, Hagel, Lugar and Warner or the Democratic leadership of Reid and Pelosi.

What the proponents of this view overlook is that we may believe the bloodshed should end, but there are those, viz. al Qaeda, who believe the bloodshed must continue and escalate.  American withdrawal — the cut and run strategy proposed by many in the Congress — will only reduce American deaths; it will have exactly the reverse effect on the region.  In fact, if one considers American interests in the Middle East, a political vacuum created with the withdrawal of American forces will lead ineluctably to a regional war in which American forces will have to be reintroduced, notwithstanding the ostrich — like posture of congressional leaders.

It is one thing to glibly assert that too many are dying.  Needless to say, I, like most Americans, don’t want anyone to die.  But if you cannot tolerate death then you cannot fight to preserve your strategic interests.

Moreover, the U.S. has interests in the Middle East worth preserving and, despite leftist claims “it is all about oil,” there are other matters that must be addressed: stemming the tide of radical Islam, protecting Israel — the one democratic state in the region — supporting allies in Jordan and Egypt that face the threat of radical opposition and thwarting the nuclear ambitions and imperial goals of Iran. Iraq is not a distraction, as many contend, but a battlefront in a larger war.  It is a beachhead that offers the U.S. leverage against al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran.

For the cut and run crowd, leaving Iraq presumably affords the U.S. opportunities to engage radical Islam wherever it raises hydra-headed terrorism.  But what these critics overlook is that al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) is the vanguard in the war against the United States.  AQI is not isolated to Iraq; it is part of a global strategic assessment.  An American withdrawal only emboldens the enemy into believing that new fronts in Jordan, the West Bank, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are possible.

Emerging in U.S. politics is a decisive fork in the road.  Either we hunker down and destroy al Qaeda and the militias in Iraq or we depart and face a Middle East about to explode into violence that makes the present set of conditions seem like a walk in the park.  There are those who wear historical blinders; they believe the U.S. departure from Vietnam ended the violence.  But the killing fields in Cambodia and the boat people in Vietnam are the ghosts many choose to ignore.  We ignore these ghosts at our own peril for they haunt the regions they inhabit and at some point will haunt the United States.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 9:49 am and is filed under Politics .