War, What Is It Good For?

Gomer Pyle, USMC was televised, in prime time, from 1964 to 1969. Although it was the height of the Vietnam War, no mention of war, or Vietnam, or body counts was ever made. This blog will not be so squeamish when it comes to discussing the news of the day. Okay, so I am a veteran, which will convince some of you that you know exactly where I stand. Well, you would be wrong. I do not believe that Operation Iraqi Freedom was particularly well thought out. The intelligence that sent us there was wrong. That does not mean that President Bush lied, anymore than it means President Clinton or the United Nations lied. What it means is that the intelligence was wrong, period. Saddam bluffed, and lost. He did not have any measurable weapons of mass destruction. That does not mean that the war there has been for naught. Things are not going perfectly, but neither are they going as dismally as the sound bites would have you believe. Today's New York Times published a "State of Iraq Update." On this, the eve of an historic election, in which the previously separatist Sunnis are poised to vote, there is good news. 87% of Iraqi households have fuel, average electrical power is only 3/10 of 1% below prewar levels, unemployment is down to 32%, from a high of 50%, there are 5,000,000 telephone subscribers, from 800,000 prewar subscribers, annual GDP is a statistical match to prewar (and climbing), felony court cases are being prosecuted, the number of registered cars has doubled to 3.1 million, and the suspected number of terrorists is down 2,000 from this time last year; hopefully due to termainal lead poisoning. All this comes courtesy of the Times, you need not believe me. Okay, so people, American men and women, are still dying, and as a soldier that hurts my heart, but the number pales in comparison to the number of Iraqis who are dying. That's the most telling number. The Iraqi government is the most threatening enemy of the terrorists, and that's why bombs explode daily where men and women are standing in line to become soldiers and police. Each day these lines are targeted, dozens, if not hundreds, are killed and yet they line up again the next day. The reason is simple: the average Iraqi wants democracy and self-determination, something we take for granted. That is why our troops leaving immediately would not solve the problem. The bombings would not stop. The Iraqi government is the real target of the terrorists. We are just it's most visible proponent. Millions of Iraqis will go to the poll tomorrow, risking their own lives, to participate in democracy. That's what we are protecting and that's why the war is so important. Civil war in Iraq is not a given. Stability can be attained, if given time. The prediacte for war was faulty, but that does not make the end result any less noble. Eventually the Iraqis will have to provide stability, but they cannot, at this point, do it alone. Success, not just militarily, is within our grasp, within the grasp of the Iraqis, if we can just hold on long enough to give it to them.