Marine Corp Major Ben Connable writes in the Washington Post that it is difficult for most Americans to rationalize the genuine optimism from mid-grade, junior and noncommissioned officers who have spent much of the past three years in Iraq, in the face of the false and dangerously misleading picture presented by the main stream media.
According to Major Connable, the false picture presented by the main stream media has brought us to a moment of "national truth:"
The proponents of the quagmire vision argue that the very presence of U.S. troops in Iraq is the cause of the insurgency and that our withdrawal would give the Iraqis their only true chance for stability. Most military officers and NCOs with ground experience in Iraq know that this vision is patently false. Although the presence of U.S. forces certainly inflames sentiment and provides the insurgents with targets, the anti-coalition insurgency is mostly a symptom of the underlying conditions in Iraq. It may seem paradoxical, but only our presence can buffer the violence enough to allow for eventual stability.
The precipitous withdrawal of U.S. troops would almost certainly lead to a violent and destabilizing civil war. The Iraqi military is not ready to assume control and would not miraculously achieve competence in our absence. As we left, the insurgency would turn into internecine violence, and Iraq would collapse into a true failed state. The fires of the Iraqi civil war would spread, and terrorists would find a new safe haven from which to launch attacks against our homeland.
Anyone who has spent even a day in the Middle East should know that the Arab street would not thank us for abandoning Iraq. The blame for civil war would fall squarely on our shoulders. It is unlikely that the tentative experiments in democracy we have seen in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere would survive the fallout. There would be no dividend of goodwill from heartbroken intellectuals or emboldened Islamic extremists. American troops might be home in the short run, but the experienced professionals know that in the long run, quitting Iraq would mean more deployments, more desperate battles and more death.
As Major Connable says, "we can fail only if the false imagery of quagmire takes hold and our national political will is broken."
UPDATE: At The QandO Blog McQ agrees that the key to victory is maintaining our political will. McQ also implies that we may well lose our will if the main stream media fails to present the complete picture of Iraq.
Somehow the main stream media has to be made aware that, as Thomas Sowell put it, they have come up with a formula that would make any war in history unwinnable and unbearable: Simply emphasize the enemy's victories and our losses.
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