I took a lot of heat for yesterday’s TMV post about supporting the “surge” proposal. Much of it was expected and some was not (particularly the more personal attacks), but there was one response that’s really bothering me.
The commenter made several numbered points, but this first one is where I’m stuck:
What is the deal with all these people deathly afraid of withdrawing from Iraq? Yes, its a tragic end to a failed and contemptible execution of foreing policy but it also does several things that aren’t so bad:
1) It will leave the US as the sole world super-power. Still. A lost battle does not lose a war (especially this one which is so emphemeral and fluid in its focus). The Romans endured stunning catastrophes constantly in their conflicts and yet always managed to come out on top (well, for several centuries at least!)
And I saw another version of that today, in a (very heated) comment thread on a Jason Steck post at TMV:
it will get ugly while the countries inhabitants (remember them? There is an indigenous population there though one wouldn’t know it by our debates about whether to “surge” or “partition” the country is the best answer.) work out their differences one way or another. And when that day comes America will be what it was in 2001. The greatest power on earth, still.
I simply don’t know what to make of this. It strikes me as appallingly arrogant, even narcissistic.
It is because of the Iraqi people that I feel we cannot turn away without having exhausted every possible attempt to save them. That, above every other consideration, is why I chose to support the “surge” plan in Iraq.
To mentally dismiss the fall-out from Iraq’s collapse and ensuing mayhem as “ugly”, but they’ll “work their differences out one way or another” while we drive on as America the Great is incredible.
Please — tell me I’m misunderstanding something. Tell me that folks aren’t justifying the troop withdrawals or redeployment proposals in this way.
We lost our greatness the day we invaded a country without a plan… and on that very same day, we assumed responsibiity for the people whose lives we disrupted.
This war, for me, long-since stopped being about the United States. It’s all about them now. The people.
We’re not great if we walk away and let them die.