Despite the news media’s apparent insistence on clinging to their narrative of defeat and disaster in Basra, Nouri al-Maliki’s operation to restore control of the city to the elected government achieved its major goal today with the fall of the Mahdi militia’s stronghold in the city. An early-morning offensive against the Hayaniyah district of Basra netted dozens of arrests as the central government took control of the area for the first time...And Captain Ed notes the way things work in mainstream media these days:
Of course, others will likely continue to spin this as more disaster because “violence” has occurred. At some point, though, the central elected government had to displace the militias and ensure that they had an indisputable monopoly on force in the nation if they expected to remain credible and keep Iraq in one piece. They gave the Sadrists at least four years to disband on their own, and they refused to do so. Maliki’s confidence in his armed forces appears to have been justified, while the Mahdis look more like the paper tigers the IA was supposed to be.There are only four reasons, as I see it, why one might want to withdraw from Iraq immediately:
1. You don't know crap about what's going on there. This is a side-effect of Bush-hatred or of using only news gathered from the New York Times and CNN.
2. You're rooting for the jihadists. This applies to a very, very small percentage of the American population, including both native jihadis and long-time anti-Americans like Bill Ayers.
3. You're a pacifist. I disagree, but respectfully: pacifism has a long and honorable tradition within Christianity.
4. You have political reasons for doing so, i.e. you think you can win an election. This applies to a large-ish number of American politicians.
Anyway, perhaps you simply disagreed with the Iraq War at the beginning. (Though that's a pretty poor reason for wanting to get out now. In fact, it's just about the worst possible reason for wanting to get out of Iraq, in logical terms, since...well...the conclusion does not follow from the premise. Just saying.) Michael Yon, an independent reporter and the best correspondent of this war who has been there for most of its duration, has something to say to you:
"We can win this war," Yon declares. "And if we do it will be a victory of the same magnitude as the fall of the Soviet Union. It will not be a victory for the Republican Party. It will not be a victory for America and Great Britain and others 'against' Iraq. It will be a victory for freedom and justice. It will be a victory for Iraqis and for the world, and only then will it be a victory for us."(This is Yon quoted in the New York Post, itself quoted on PowerLine Blog. Read both articles in their entirety; the Post article is a review of Yon's book, Moment of Truth In Iraq--$29.95 at Amazon.com.)
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