General Petraeus was asked by Senator John Warner of Virginia on Tuesday whether the course of action we are pursuing in Iraq is making America safer. To which the General replied, "Sir, I don't know actually."Maybe I can help the General out here. The answer is no. We are making some of the Iraqis safe from some of the other Iraqis. And we are keeping some of them safe from the outside agitators who came to town and established an al-Qaeda franchise amdist all the chaos we helped create. And we are keeping all of the Iraqis safe from the Iranians.
Does any of this help out Americans? The last time I checked it was the job of the American government to keep Americans safe. I think I read that somewhere. Oh yes, it was in the United States Constitution. In the Preamble it lists the reasons for creating the federal government, and among them is to "provide for the common defense". The word "common" applies to the people of the United States, not all of the world's people, nor does it mean all of the people in countries that happen to have the world's 2nd largest supply of petroleum beneath their soil.
There are 2 ways in which our decision to invade and remain in Iraq is jeopardizing the lives of Americans, and they are the impact that choice has had on Muslims, and the effect it has had on our rivals.
With respect to the Muslims of the world, they didn't like it when we occupied Saudi Arabia briefly in order to facilitate our defense of Kuwait, another Muslim nation. How did President Bush think they would feel about his plan to illegally invade Iraq and stay there indefinitely? Did he think Saudi Arabia, birthplace of Osama bin Laden and 15 of the 19 terrorists who attacked us on September 11, 2001, would sit idly by while their biggest oil customer tried to acquire the 2nd largest supply of oil in the world by force? Whatever it is they are teaching kids in schools over there that made 15 young men fly suicide missions at U.S. targets is not likely to become more favorable when textbooks are updated to include the Iraq War. And now it is not just regular guys who are joining the fight, we now have Muslim doctors joining the terrorist's cause, as we saw over the summer in the United Kingdom. How many more terrorists were created when news got out about the 3 American soldiers who gang raped a 14 year old Iraqi girl and murdered her and her family (mother, father and 7 year old sister)?
When I mentioned our rivals earlier, I was referring to the other countries with big armies and nuclear arsenals that we don't always see eye to eye with, Russia and China. Has anybody noticed what they have been up to in the past 6 months or so? I have. It is a little disturbing. They are both becoming a little more belligerent than I would like, considering they both have the ability to annihilate us and they don't need to hijack airplanes to do it. And the sad part is, their reaction is not altogether irrational, considering our behavior. Our invasion of Iraq to get at their natural resources is the worst kind of imperialism, plain and simple, and this is not lost on either of them. Here is a list of some of the headlines that should cause you some alarm, and they represent the kind of things that were not going on before we started misbehaving in Iraq:
Today: "Zubkov to boost Russia's Military" - Not good
9/12/07: "Russian 'father of all bombs' outblasts US super bomb" - Also not good
8/17/07: "Putin revives Russia's long-haul bomber flights" - Scared yet?
8/17/07: "Russia and China to hold joint military exercise" - Feeling safe?
6/28/07: "Kremlin lays claim to huge chunk of oil-rich North Pole" - Russia going some place it has no business going to try and get their hands on oil? How would you like to have Condoleeza Rice's job and have to criticize them for that course of action without seeming like a hypocrite. Good luck.
Admittedly some of the Russian actions can be attributed to another bonehead decision by President Bush, the whole sci-fi Eastern European missle shield fantasy. But you get the general idea, a powerful country we were formerly on good terms with, has started acting up of late.
Keep your eyes out for headlines from these countries, and bear in mind that the dangers of the war in Iraq have nothing to do with what is going on in Iraq. What is of greater import is the perception of the United States in the eyes of our enemies and potential enemies that the war has created. It has made increasingly more mainstream followers of Islam hate us, and with good reason. It has given China and Russia each an excuse to increase and flex their military might. There is nothing General Petraeus and any number of troops can do in Iraq that will make Americans safer. The only way to make us safer if to bring them all home. Would we have liked it if Britain had come over to the U.S. and fought with one side or the other during our Civil War, and then decided to stay for 9 or 10 years afterwards just to make sure Reconstruction worked out? What if they had showed up uninvited and started the whole war in the first place? Let's get out of Iraq now. We have worn out our welcome, and not only do our hosts think that way, but so does the rest of the world. God help this planet if some of those countries decide to start emulating our behavior.
