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Conservatives heartbroken that American people won’t stay the course in a phony war
The conservative delusion continues, with Rush Limbaugh criticizing the American people for not backing President Bush’s war on terror. What Limbaugh and so many other conservative pundits fail to grasp is that Bush, with his constant welcoming embrace of Islam and Muslims, undermines any notion that we are in a war, so why should people support this non-war? For example, at this moment Bush’s Justice Department is in court defending the right of Muslim girls to wear the Muslim head scarf in American schools. Meanwhile in a blistering column Ralph Peters says that our own high-minded refusal to kill our enemies in Iraq is dooming the Iraq people to hell on earth. Peters at least recognizes—at long last—that we have not been waging a real war in Iraq, and he urges President Bush to do so, while the majority of the conservative commentators keep grieving that Americans won’t support the present, unreal war. Jeff in England writes: The problem, as you said, is that Peter’s strategy comes very late in the day. I have to admit I am divided myself. I am against American troop deplyment in any Muslim country for reasons that you have laid out, yet I hate the thought of the jihadists taking over. So as the troops even under the Democrats will be there a while yet, deadline or not, let them do what needs to be done. Kill al-Sadr immediately. Close supply lines to his supporters. Kill known Sunni insurgents. Kill all supected al-Queda operatives. Close the borders and supply lines to them completely. Close the internet chat supporting the insurgency. Cut the money coming in for the insurgents. Don’t worry what the Muslim world says or the Left. But of course it won’t happen. The same old purgatory will continue. Americans policing an unpoliceable action. Of course, we should never again have troops in a Muslim country again and after this no one will want to, so that is a silver lining in a nightmarish situation. It was bad enough sending troops into a Muslim country. Not to let those troops do the job after the initial dethronement of Saddam was an act of gross stupidity, incompetency and dare I say it, evil. LA replies: “Not to let those troops do the job after the initial dethronement of Saddam was an act of gross stupidity, incompetency and dare I say it, evil.” Yes—that was precisely Peters’s point. Jeff replies: The difference between me and Peters is that I was against the war in the first place on the premise that Muslim countries are not compatible with democracy. Peters, a neocon, wanted to remake Iraq as a Western country. Well, we were right and he was wrong and now we have to help him try and get us out with some sort of “victory.” LA: Yes, the things Peters is talking about—on the spot killings of every troublemaker we capture, that is, the large-scale killing of unarmed prisoners—is not going to happen. It wouldn’t happen even earlier, let alone now, when the country has largely given up on Bush’s policy and is looking for the exit. But at least Peters is getting to the truth. To democratize and modernize a Muslim country can only be done—if it can be done at all—through maximum force and oppressiveness. The secularized Turkey that led to the current democratic Turkey was created through force and despotism . Peters seems to understand this idea now. HE didn’t understand it before. It would be nice if instead of just changing his tune, he would honestly say, “I’m changing my tune.”
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