And in Conclusion . . .
The current administration plan (if you can call it that) is a train wreck in the making. It is the worst of all worlds – a combination of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, where military action to suppress the insurgency creates more new terrorists and an endless cycle of violence; the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, where Muslims from around the region (if not the world) flock to Iraq for jihad against the American infidel; and our own experience in Lebanon in the 1980s, when U.S. forces got caught in the crossfire of a civil war. It doesn’t get any uglier than that.
Comment by Leonard —
March 30, 2006 @ 10:00 am
I hate it when people deny the obvious. Peña says the least bad option — withdrawal — would ”not be ’cutting and running’”. But he’s talking about cutting our losses by leaving as fast as possible. How is that not ”cutting and running”? By any reasonable metaphorical stretch, it is. It really weakens an argument when you try so hard to avoid agreeing with the other side’s demonization phrases.
As for the point about the current administration ”plan” being the worst of all worlds… well, I’m reminded of the Star Wars line where Han is told that the reward for saving Leia could be ”more than you can imagine”. His response: ”I dunno… I can imagine quite a lot”. Peña might not be able to think of anything worse, but I can. For example, the US starts a new hot war staged from Iraq into Iran, and doesn’t send enough force. Or if it turns out they do have a nuke, and they manage to position it in front of our of our armor spearheads.
Comment by Hesiod —
March 30, 2006 @ 8:01 pm
He left out Chechnya.