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Iraq is Not a Mess
Live-blogging from Iraq, former marine W. Thomas Smith, Jr., writes that we are winning:
Counterinsurgencies take time, long stretches of it (remember Britain’s decade-plus long Malayan insurgency). And we are winning here no matter what naysayers want to say about what might be one’s definition of winning. We are winning militarily here in Al Anbar: Defeating the enemy at every turn, denying him terrain, interdicting his lines of supply, collecting intelligence on his operations (which further allows us to connect the dots to other enemy operations worldwide), “winning the hearts and minds” of the good people of this province, and, yes, causing Iraqis in other provinces to look west for a model. How’s that for a definition of winning?
He is tirelessly reporting on the turnaround in Iraq. In this post he has a few words for the defeatists in Washington:
AL QAIM — Early afternoon here as I watch two wicked-looking Harriers roar across the desert beyond me. Over the past couple days, I’ve seen Harrier jump jets and Cobra helicopters (flown by Marine pilots) as well as the two permanently stationed Black Hawk medevac helos (flown by the Army). Rarely do I see transports like C-130s out this way (in fact, I don’t think I’ve seen any) unless they are picking up or delivering. After all, this is the proverbial last American outpost — counting battalion HQ, all the battle positions and combat outposts — in western Iraq.
I used to say Iraq is a mess, but winnable. I was wrong. Iraq is not a mess. It is complex, and, yes, still winnable.
If there is any aspect of this war that is a mess, it is the militarily stifling mess created by the micro-managing politicians who think they know something about warfighting and the classic principles of war (you know, the basics as fleshed out by the likes of Clausewitz, Jomini, and Frederick the Great). Those birds on the Hill have obviously never read any of the three. And the majority of the most vocal of the war critics have never even worn the uniform of our country. Yet some have even gone so far as to suggest that they have military backgrounds based on their holding seats on armed services committees.
Then there are my favorites like Reid, Pelosi, Biden, and Murtha, all of whom have consistently given aid and comfort to the enemy with declarations of a “lost war,” a “disaster,” and a “failed policy;” as well as referring to our Marines here in Anbar as being “cold-blooded” killers. What do they — save perhaps the agenda-driven turncoat Murtha — really know about war?
This is not to suggest that they might not have flown in for a bite of lunch at Camp Victory out by Baghdad International Airport, or gotten a guided tour of the Green Zone. But I personally can’t imagine any of them spending any real time out here on the ends of the earth. And how can they possibly make claims that the war is “lost” and a “disaster” unless they’ve actually experienced it? There is simply no way that anyone so eager to pull the plug on this effort can appreciate the realities of Al Anbar much less Iraq unless they’ve suffered in this heat, driven multiple times up-and-down these dangerous supply routes, patrolled the cities and towns, interacted with shepherds, shopkeepers, and the sick, aging, and unemployed living in some of the most impoverished villages on earth. How can they appreciate the realities of this effort unless they’ve been shot at a few times, sat for endless hours — sometimes days — with exhausted Marines and soldiers under the sun and stars of an isolated battle position. Fact is neither the politicians nor the most vocal of the antiwar crowd have a clue as to what is really going on — the good and the bad — out here. But they’ve somehow convinced much of America they do.
Godspeed Tom. Thank you for your incredible coverage.
Please tell the troops we support them and the mission. In other words, we . . .
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