The American Spectator

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Staying Put

4.10.08 @ 12:01AM

FRAGILE AND REVERSIBLE
Re: G. Tracy Mehan, III's This Pause Won't Refresh:

For the state of the current Iraq war debate, we can thank the inability or unwillingness of the Bush Administration to articulate and defend the many valid reasons we went into Iraq and the many, many additional regional and geopolitical reasons for the U.S. to stick with the project until the country is able to properly function. That is yesterday's topic and almost yesterday's administration. Thanks to Senator McCain we see the beginnings of a rational debate on this very important-to-our-future effort. Mr. Mehan appears to join the many Democrats and foreign policy Know-Nothing Republicans who are hell-bent on flinging their petticoats over their heads and running, willy nilly, for the nearest exit; damn the consequences. We are not debating whether to go into Iraq; we are already there. How we leave the country is as important to our future as why. Let's all take a deep breath, please.

Doubtless the author had a stellar career at the EPA. I wonder at his qualifications and abilities, however, to elucidate on foreign and defense policy, much less on geopolitics. It might prove salutary for him to unroll a map of the region and take a good look at what used to be called Persia and is now called the Islamic Republic of Iran. Take a gander at the Straits of Hormuz; it's that narrow body of water that separates the Gulf of Arabia from the Gulf of Oman. Over 30 percent of the world's oil supply transits this 21-mile wide strait, and Iran's navy is stationed right there. Looking upwards and slightly to the left, Iraq (of all places) comes into view. Next to Iraq lies Sunni Saudi Arabia, keeper of the Holy Cities; an ally of ours and no friend of the Shia Iranian mullahocracy.

Oh, yes. Add the fact that Iran has been hostile to us since the overthrow of the Shah, sponsors terrorism (see Hizbullah) in the Levant and other parts of the Middle East and world; committed an act of war on our embassy in 1979, is hell-bent on developing nukes to put on its missiles, etc., etc., and so forth.

Senator McCain wants to finish the job in Iraq. The Iraqis appear to be working on their part, having fulfilled 12 of the 18 benchmarks and working to curtail Iranian backed Shia militias. Yes they've been slow, but they are working on their end of the bargain and seem to be picking up speed. General Petraeus has snatched progress from the jaws of irresolution. We appear to be on the right track at last. My question to the faint of heart continues to be "What besides wishful thinking does anyone other than Senator McCain offer?"
-- Frank Stevenson
Williamsburg, Virginia

Mr. Mehan's essay resonates on so many levels, it is difficult to make a single subject comment.

I think Mr. Mehan illustrates the most important mistake President Bush has made during his Presidency. The first is as we all know, to spend like a liberal. That is to say wasting billions of dollars of our money doing things very badly that ought not to be done at all.

Fighting the war in Iraq like a Democrat is the second and the worst error. When Democrats fight wars they incorporate three components as their strategy. First, we must not get Americans in any numbers hurt or killed. Second, we fight to maintain the status quo, not to change things, though this is an unspoken understanding. Finally we must have no plan. We just charge in and expect things to work out.

FDR was the last Democrat to fight to win and accept the necessary consequences of that overweening goal. Truman accomplished nothing in Korea; JFK the same in Cuba; LBJ and a Democrat Congress worsened the situation in Vietnam. Mr. Carter did absolutely nothing when Iran attacked the U.S. and took our embassy workers hostage. (At least he was intellectually honest. He knew he wouldn't win because he wouldn't try to, so he did nothing to get the same results as previous Democrats: none.) Mr. Clinton, of course, sent troops to Bosnia and Somalia. Where there was actual combat in Somalia, he completely abandoned those troops and we lost some of our finest for no purpose what ever.

No we have left wing George Bush who is doing the same thing. No thought. No plan. And Americans being killed and maimed to no purpose.
-- Jay Molyneaux
North Carolina

If Mr. Mehan is going to regularly report on events in Iraq, he might consider using terms a little more descriptive of war than the panty-waist "troubling," as in Basra. Troubling is when you look in your checkbook and discover you didn't record the last three checks. Or when you are in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge and your gas gauge shows Empty.

His statement that "death and carnage had stopped" was a redundancy, considering the locale. Death is death and carnage is slaughter. What can the man be thinking? Besides filling the required space, I mean?

As for the rest of the article, the first four paragraphs were simply Mehan telling us what General Petraeus said, indicating he saw the hearings. And referring to another article, which proves he read about it somewhere.

Did anyone read this article and come away wondering just what of his own thinking went into it? Save the last gloomy prediction harking back to WWI.

On the other hand, maybe it is just that I am wondering how serving in the EPA qualifies one for much. I added a 12'x12' room to my house years back. It could not be seen from the street and yet I had to conform with EPA regulations you would not believe. Studies as to what impact this additional living space would have on the environment. Thirty five copies of my blueprints sent to neighbors. Would it cast a shadow on my neighbor's house? No. Would it obstruct a view? No. Still, if any one of them had objected, scrap the plans. They tangled with the wrong private citizen, though. I played their game through endless Planning Commission meetings and got my addition.

Letter to the Editor

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