Weren’t We Just Losing?
By Alexander Marriott UNLV Rebel Yell: April 10, 2003

It was barely more than a week ago when pundits everywhere, from retired generals, to editorial pages on right and left were proclaiming defeat and quagmire for our troops in Iraq. A teacher remarked that the whole thing was a “debacle.” Rumsfeld and his horrible plan were to blame. Heads were going to roll.

Then, almost as quickly as the criticisms came the Iraqi army fell to pieces; even the vaunted “Fedayeen Saddam” were blown to bits on the road to Baghdad. Now the same people are hailing the plan they condemned as one of the greatest military operations in history, although the teacher I mentioned has fallen back on her “Blood for Oil” argument and some conspiracy allegations against the administration wanting to fight a perpetual war (despite the fact that Bush can only be President for eight years.)

What the hell happened?

Could it be that with the hopes in mind that the war would go badly and sink the Bush Presidency, the press jumped all over the couple of pieces of bad news and blew it into some sort of neo-Vietnam and Donald Rumsfeld into an inept putz the likes of Robert McNamara? It would appear so.

Sad that some of these people pin their hopes of political gain on a military “debacle” that means by implication the loss of a great many American lives. I wonder if they even know we’re in a war and have been since September 11, 2001?

Of course then potential rival of Bush in 2004, John Kerry, called for a “Regime change” in America, bringing into question whether or not he knows what government he lives under, since the word “regime” is usually used in reference to oppressive and illegitimate governments like Saddam’s. I think instead of wasting a good title like Things Fall Apart on a crummy book, Chinua could have documented the Democratic Party during the War on Terrorism instead, it would have proved far more interesting.

Funny that people that don’t have all the information and have never even seen the military plan that General Franks is working with ventured to put themselves so far out on a limb in judging it as soon as the enemy responded. Think of what these people would have crafted. They can’t handle casualties so they would have spent all their time crafting a plan where no Americans or innocent Iraqis could ever be killed. This may sound well and good, but the only way that could happen in war is to have no war at all. BINGO!

Could it be that they didn’t want war to begin with? Pat Buchanan and John McLaughlin are two noted right wingers who opposed going to war and then were two of the first to jump all over the plan when things seemed to go wrong, although in fairness to Buchanan, his criticisms were less asinine than McLaughlin’s. Nearly everyone else who opposed the war were either irrational religionists (the Pope) or lefties like Gore Vidal, and the nuts on the streets protesting. Big surprise that when the fastest military advance in the history of the world runs over a bump of opposition that all of these people, who opposed the military action in the first place, came out to criticize.

The dopiest thing said yet though is, “I still support the troops.” Oh really? Bush outranks everyone in the military, making him one of the troops. Do you support him? How can one support those who carry out an action one disagrees with? Did any Germans opposed to the Nazis say of the Hitler’s aggressions, “I don’t support wanton invasions and killing Jews, but I support the troops who are doing it”? I hope not. This is an extreme example of course, but the principle involved is no different.

According to those opposing the war, including certain Democratic congressmen who have called the war a “massacre,” this war will kill innocent women and children for nothing of course, because Saddam isn’t a threat. If that is what you believe, how can you then support the men and women actually killing the innocent women and children?

Too much muddled reasoning and too many false premises for one article really, but since we’re losing the war, or winning it, depending on anyone having been recently killed, it had to be done, for myself if not for everyone else as well.