We had high hopes that the moderate Muslim world would be a counterbalance to radical Islam. But instead, a large percentage of Muslims believe that it is OK to kill innocent Americans, liberals won't escape retribution by being nice, and the jihad will continue. Guilt by association.
It's easy to look back at something and say you would do things differently. Looking at the Iraq war in hindsight, it's clear that it was filled with gross miscalculations.
Our Administration miscalculated how the majority of Iraqis would receive us, the strength of the so-called insurgency, and how long we would need to defeat it; while the only missteps the terrorists have made is bombing a hotel in Jordan, and having their leader feed his giant ego by appearing on camera, but Zarqawi paid for that miscalculation with his life.
The biggest problem we have, is that our miscalculations may very well affect the outcome of the war, while terrorist miscalculations only result in more killings, deepening international anger, and hardened resolve against what Muslims perceive as US aggression. Every misstep we make is turned into a propaganda victory, and broadcast immediately throughout the entire Middle East.
After the invasion in 2003, President Bush felt that there was no room for Ba'athists in the new government, so he ordered that all government institutions --including the military-- should be purged of Ba'athists and their sympathizers. This single decision, more than any other --right or wrong-- stoked the anger than fueled the terrorist campaign, because we essentially shut many Sunni Muslims out of their own political process by force. Guilt by association.
As the war dragged on, the Coalition began reconstruction, but before security was established. American, South Korean, Bulgarian, and Italian contractors were beheaded in one of the more horrific legacies of this war. These men were simply trying to feed their families and bring peace to Iraq. As a result, their heads were mercilessly hacked off. Guilt by association.
The violence continued. The terrorists adopted a strategy of kidnapping westerners, journalists, or even Iraqis that worked for the coalition as translators or drivers. Some were beheaded, others shot, but all were treated horribly for cooperating with America. Guilt by association.
Now, nearly four years later, what our administration calls "sectarian violence" is really a religious civil war. Foreign jihadists continue to stream across the border. The American and Iraqi death tolls reached a gruesome crescendo this month. Iraq has now descended into anarchy while we are merely spectators. Sunnis and Shiites are attacking Americans as well as other Iraqis. Sunnis are targeting Shiites. Shiites are targeting Sunnis. They're attacking each other's places of worship. It's tribe against tribe, brother against brother-in-law. Guilt by association.
It seems like things are deteriorating faster than you can document them. The death toll is climbing faster than can be tallied. Against the backdrop of this carnage, the President has no clue how to put the genie back in the bottle. He is flailing around, grasping for something, anything to help him out of this mess.
Between his administration, the military generals, the Iraq Study Group, and the Congress, no one seems to have a solution to the violence. As a result, Bush has now sought help from Iraq's neighbors Syria, Iran, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Iran and Syria hate us, and will only represent their own interests. Saudi Arabia is too afraid of it's own street to do anything concrete to help us. Jordan is the lone question mark.
In the end, there are only two realistic military solutions to Iraq. We can saturate the country with military force, wrest control from the terrorists, and finish the job, or we can simply leave.
Both of these solutions stink, but we don't have much of a choice. When we first joined the war on terror, back in October of 2001, Bush said he would make no distinction between the terrorists and those who harbor them. Guilt by association.
We had high hopes that the moderate Muslim world would be a counterbalance to radical Islam. But instead, a large percentage of Muslims believe that it is OK to kill innocent Americans, liberals won't escape retribution by being nice, and the jihad will continue. Guilt by association.
Jayme Evans is a veteran of the United States Navy, a military analyst, conservative opinion columnist, and an advocate for disabled and other veterans. He has served for many years as a Subject Matter Expert specializing in the testing of systems software for numerous major US organizations. He has extensively studied amateur astronomy and metallurgy, as well as military and US history. His brutally honest, in-your-face political commentary has been published in many west coast newspapers, and he is a regular contributing columnist to a multitude of internet sites, including WebCommentary.com, The Conservative Voice, and Conservative Crusader. Mr. Evans has also written guest editorials for Military Magazine, and he has been a frequent guest columnist on WorldNetDaily, writing about legislative and veteran's issues.
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