Iraq is not Lost; Don't Bring Troops Home until We've Won

Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas and candidate for president 2008, was on the Sean Hannity radio show Wednesday. I don't know a lot about him except for a mental note that I haven't ruled him out for my vote yet. When asked about the situation in Iraq, he made resounding sense. We have to fight. We have to win. We cannot hide in America and expect to be safe. Our world is too small, technology too advanced to ignore threats beyond our borders.



A scan of articles published this week on Townhall.com, however - a website for conservative voices - shows me startling evidence that the Republicans are more opposed to the war than ever. I cannot understand our Republican congressmen, or our commentators for that matter. Haven't they studied history? Wars take time. Wars cost lives. Sadaam did have weapons capable of inflicting grave harm on large numbers of people. He did harbor terrorists. His government was oppressive to his people, and had blatantly disobeyed UN resolutions implemented to reign in Sadaam's rogue tendencies after the first Gulf War. To leave now would abandon tens of thousands to brutal civil war, leaving a power gap into which al-Qaeda and Iran could step, claiming even more influence over the Islamic world.



The articles I scanned said that the Republicans as well as Democrats are dismayed at mounting casualties in Iraq and recent car-bomb attacks in that country. So they want to withdraw troops as soon as possible. Weren't these men taught even in elementary school that running when a bully throws more punches does not discourage the bully? It emboldens him!

This at the same time that the British Isles have faced two victimless, but frightfully narrowly avoided, terrorist attacks. The US has uncovered several plots in the past year. Intelligence reports just starting to come out say that al-Qaeda is pushing for more operatives to come to the United States, that they are almost ready (and intending, of course) to carry out major attacks in our country again. The borders remain disturbingly porous in more ways than one. Now is not a good time to stop fighting.

Even today General Petraeus reported about the troop surge that was so hotly contested by the Democrats. At the midway point of the strategy, half of the goals have been met (I actually heard Katie Couric reporting the facts this morning, before they went into Democrat propaganda, ahem, political review). Violence is down in the areas where the surge is focused. Our American troops are stabilizing Iraq, rooting out terrorists, and continuing the liberation of the Iraqi people while at the same time training native troops to defend their own nation. Please. Give them a chance. Don't despair. Be patient. This is how war is.

To God be all glory.