No Way to Run a War
Mark Helprin has a very good piece in Today WSJ, “No Way to Run a War” in which is he critical of both Republicans and Democrats and luckily it is on their free site.
https://opinionjournal.com/columnists/mhelprin/?id=110005090
While I do not agree with all of his comments, (call me overly optimistic, but I do think that creating a democratic Iraq is worth at least a try and an important part of a long term solution) I agree with the many of his points. Particularly Bush’s trying to run the war on the cheap. I think we need a big increase in the defense department and the size of the military and thought so even before 9/11. I do not think it is right to treat reservist as regular army with such long terms. I think the shortage of troop is a problem. Not that we need more in Iraq, but just that we do not have enough to rotate them in and out, plus maintain our commitment elsewhere. In short we are stretched too thin, and that this is one of the reasons we waited so long to go into Iraq, and why we are rushing to get out. Our weakness is apparent and this emboldened our enemies.
Thus I think there is plenty of room for a challenger to attack Bush for being too weak on the war. However Kerry and the leading democrats, while they sometimes say those words, are actually attacking Bush for being too strong. Rather than arguing that we need a larger military, they instead argue that we should fall back and let the UN and Europe take a larger role.
George Melloan summed up the current situation pretty well today when he wrote in the WSJ, about Bush “He now has a war on two fronts, against armed guerrillas in Iraq, and those armed only with harsh words and scowling countenances at home. They have the same purpose, to sway American public opinion against the war.”
Rather than being critical of Bush for not being strong enough on the war, Kerry and the leading democrats seem to have decided to try an turn Iraq into a “Vietnam quagmire” hoping that as support for the war falls, so will Bush’s poll numbers, and that this will propel them into power.
They seem oblivious to the consequences of such a strategy, for as weakening support for the war at home will only encourage our enemy, as that has been their strategy all along, as detailed in Bin Laden comments on the strong horse and the weak horse. Emboldening our enemy can only lead to more of our troops dying, now as they seek to further weaken support, and later as we try to recover lost ground. It may be a political strategy that might work, but work or not it is a strategy that our soldiers will pay dearly for.
