The Anchoress

In looking at this piece from a week or so ago, a pal of mine (yes, I have pals with whom I disagree…because decent people can disagree and still be decent, civil people) took issue with it. He thought I sounded a bit cavalier about the loss of American lives in Iraq (I am anything but) and he wants to see us pull out (slowly) from Iraq because he feels the war is “immoral.” He also had some thoughts about reality and the importance of “intentionality and precision” in any effort to make a sustained difference in human welfare.

As a Catholic, I too understand the importance of intentionality, although I think precision is always hard to come by when free and thinking human beings are involved. I responded at length to my pal, and because I figured some of my readers may have drawn the same conclusions as he, I’m posting it here.
***

Dear Pal:

You wrote, your piece read like it written by someone will to sacrifice someone else’s son to win an intellectual argument…

Well, I might be sacrificing my own son. While my Elder Son is not inclined to military service, the younger one has been saying all along that when he’s done with college, the Marines may well be his choice - he’s looked into it and he’s dead serious. I have no doubt, that (whether we are in Iraq or not) by then there will some situation somewhere which will require the services and sacrifices of our young men and women.

In the meantime I have a nephew who only recently left the service and has headed into the ME twice, so I am by no means cavalier about the lives being lost. I’ve had the honor of meeting people who have served over there (none, thankfully, have been injured) and so I do apply human faces to the concept of our losses. Perhaps because I know people who have served there (including my best pal’s pediatrician who has done two rotations for the reserves and says if she didn’t have kids she’d stay there because “we are doing good things, and helping a lot of people.”)

I see these military people as heroic, not victims. Contrary to all the terrible news, there are good stories which are rarely if ever reported and to a one, these folks have told me that the ordinary Iraqi citizen is helpful and supportive to the troops whom they do appreciate.

I will grant you that this whole scheme may seem too “speculative and abstract - ” that’s because it is a vision, and a vision can never be solid, overly pragmatic or knowable in its execution. One either believes in seemingly “impossible” things or one does not.

Jules Crittenden actually has a good piece up on this idea. He recalls “once there was a great Soviet Union.” “Once there was a Berlin wall. These things are no more.”

Once there was a perpetually warring Middle East burning the Great Satan in effigy, holding Americans hostage, training terrorists to kill and maim the infidel, blowing up trains, vacation resorts and skyscrapers and swaggering about declaring “the disappearance of Israel and America.” If we hold fast through difficult times, perhaps we will be able to say “These things are no more…” but first we have to be willing to deal with the difficulty.

President Bush made it clear that the War on Terror - meaning the defeat of the whole idea of terrorism as a means-of-movement and persuasion - was going to be a “long, hard slog…”

If we do not let our fear and our discomfort and our aching hearts rule the day, if we hold fast, we can bring these tyrannized and repressed people into freedom. We can defeat the only - think of it the ONLY - “big idea” that currently exists in their society. And if we do that, this will be the greatest thing America has ever done. It will change the world; it will hand to the world a future the world seems (sadly) unable to imagine or fight for.

Great things do not occur in history because they are easy, or of certain outcomes. The American Revolution had all sorts of self-interested (Sam Adams) folk, people with agendas, people with differing views, conflicts and nay-saying. It had troops dying of starvation and the cold. Can you imagine what a modern press would have done with Washington at Valley Forge? The “chickenhawks” over in the continental congress who blathered on! Thomas Jefferson dared to play his violin while the troops suffered! Can you imagine the op-ed pieces about how John Adams’ kids did not pick up their own gun and fight, how these politicians were allowing our young men to fight “without proper shoes, without food, without working equipment?” America would never have been born…the colonials would have ended their vision in ignominious defeat and failure, the American leadership who dared to have the vision all but neutralized and reviled.

You disagree…I respect that. I’m writing about a dream and an idea and a vision that is all but extinguished at this point, and I dread what will lie before us. “Protracted withdrawl” is simply an invitation for terrorists and others to “continue training until America leaves.”

Truthfully, what we probably should do (and should have done, before) is bring in more troops and be extremely ruthless in doing away with the insurgencies. I always thought our failure to just turn Fallujah into rubble following the atrocious behavior of the insurrectionists there was our big mistake and a turning point. To a people who understand, appreciate and respect power, we did not display what we were capable of, and perhaps - in a manner of thinking - we were being invited, or dared, to make just such a demonstration at that time.

Things have never quite gone as planned over there, since then. Because we have been trying to be “humane” and because we have been trying to lose as few people as possible on any side, we have pulled back on the punches, we have covered our faces and waited for the bell sounding the end of the round, and perhaps that has cost us many more of our own troops than we would have lost had we gone in and cleaned out the nests of Fallujah.

I do not see (and you still have not answered) what pulling out accomplishes. Okay, we get to not lose any more troops. The Iraqis get to be slaughtered or subjugated (again) and how long, exactly, do you think it will be before we are hit again, either here or abroad (probably abroad, first) because we’ll have given the signal that we are, in fact, the “weak horse” OBL saw all those years ago.

I know there is an idea out there that we should just learn to “live with” the occasional incidence of terrorism. I do not understand that mindset. To me, it simply says: expand the terrorists’ playing field. Then our sons may end up in uniforms in some Godforsaken place facing attacks by IED’s, or they can be in a subway, innocently going to school, and facing attacks there. What an option.

You see an immoral war and want a pull-out. I see pulling out as an expansion of the fighting field in such a way as to be immoral.

Have we made the area more stable or the US safer? Well, you say no. Okay, outside of the Sunni triangle and Baghdad, Iraq itself is flourishing (as reported at Michael Yon’s and elsewhere) and the rest of the region has certainly benefited by Khaddfi turning in his own WMD. The “Arab Springtime” that seemed to be budding a year or so ago does seem to have withered on the vine, but that is not to say it can’t be saved. It will not be saved if we do not persist, that is for sure.

It bears repeating although I know you’re sick of hearing it…the attacks by AlQaeda upon our people, interests and vessels on an average of every 18 months during the 1990’s have stopped. Those attacks culminated in 9/11, but before then we’d lost over almost thousand in various embassies, etc. They died “far away,” and over a period of time, so that doesn’t seem to matter - those deaths don’t “count,” but they were deaths due to terrorism, innocent people killed because we were not addressing an enemy who were already at war with us. Ultimately we lost nearly 4,000 by doing nothing over the years, probably more than that, if you think back to theattacks on our military barracks in Lebanon in the 1980’s.

To date we’ve lost 2900 troops - and that is tragic and mournful and I hate every one of those deaths. But statistically is it simply true that we lose on average 500 military people a year in “peace” time, mostly due to training accidents. When you consider that, it suggests that our losses - deplorable, all - are being kept to a real minimum. To accuse me of being cavalier about troop deaths because I dare to recall that statistic is not fair. I’m simply trying to look at the whole picture. As I said, it may actually be costing us some lives to not be more aggressive in this campaign. But the press (and the people) are no longer of a mindset to accept large losses over the course of a week, or a day…or even a year. And if we’re unwilling to accept some losses (yes, even if they are MINE) then we cannot win. Normandy comes to mind.

You admire realism. I do, too. But the realism you describe, “intentionality and precision,” suggests a surgeon, following a well-mapped procedure with a likely successful outcome. But even the most skilled surgeon doing the most routine procedure can find it all going wrong, thanks to the human element. A mistake here, and unforeseen pre-disposition there. The patient has an aneurism on the table…nothing is ever assured or guaranteed. There IS another realism, but it is messy - it blunders and screws up, it needs to change course when a thing doesn’t go right. Sometimes it fails. When it does, it is a despised and hated thing that makes us terribly sad and a little ashamed and we wonder why we persist. When it does not fail, it raises all of us and inspires us and gives us permission to dream and to challenge our self-imposed limits on human potential.

I can think of two such outcomes working within one program. One of the realities ended in horrific death, making us question why we even needed to think this way…the other ended in triumph, and it still inspires and brings out our creativity and drive. I’m talking about the grief of Apollo 1 in 1967, and the glory of Apollo 11, just two years later.

If we’d pulled out of the space program after Apollo 1, sickened by the deaths of great men, I doubt the world would be what it is, today - at least not technologically. We stuck with it. Slipped the surely bounds of earth and touched the face of God. And everything changed for it.

I understand everything you’re saying and I don’t disrespect it at all. I think your heart is overflowing with compassion. But do you know, it wasn’t compassion that got us into WWII, and it wasn’t compassion that, ultimately, won the day in Europe and liberated a people being systematically wiped off the face of the earth. Compassion played its part - but usually in the civilian arena - and the warriors did the work of defeating evil which which one should never negotiate.

Perhaps you do not agree that Islamofascism is an evil spectre rising - an oppressive, liberty-despising ideology that brings neither beauty, nor freedom, nor art, nor science nor music nor economic gain. I see it as the mobilized and aggressive evil of our time. And once upon a time - not so very long ago, in fact - everyone understood that the subjugation of women, the murder of homosexuals (for the crime of being gay) the hatred of the Jews (for the crime of being Jews) and the suppression of religious expression were BAD things. Now, we seem to be dancing to the dictatorship of relativism. Say “these are bad things” and people who call themselves “liberal” answer with the perfect non-sequitur: “well, 600 years ago Christians did this and that…” Well, yes…but they’ve managed to grow out of the need for the sword, and what has that got to do with what is going on TODAY?

Maybe we are over-educated, as a society. Maybe only dumb hicks and undereducated women like me can see the sense in what I am saying - or perhaps I’m making no sense at all. But my sense - my “classical liberal” sense, because I really am not a “conservative” (I am much more Hubert Humphrey than Newt Gingrich) is that as tough as all of this may be to live through and live with, to try to back away from the challenge of the age because it is difficult and messy and heart-breaking will only assure us of our own destruction. Or maybe destruction is too strong a word. It will merely assure us of a continuation of terrorism and terrorist tactics as a means of persuasion. Europe is already almost fully persuaded.

And you still have not answered the question: what do you see happening if we pull out - even if it is a gradual withdrawal? I’m interested in knowing. Nature abhors a vacuum. Something will have to fill what we leave behind. And terrorists are patient people.

Damn Bush for getting us into this corner where all options suck, eh? Well, maybe. But sooner or later someone was going to have to do this. 9/11 made it imperative and regardless of what they say now, the whole world (at that point) believed Saddam had WMD. He was ignoring the UN, violating no fly zones and had threatened to assassinate a former president - a clear act of war which, btw, had it been answered back then, might have made our current reality quite different indeed.

In the face of 9/11, any president would have been irresponsible to not take some action. We did. Turns out he didn’t have WMD! That was a freaking kick to the head, wasn’t it? But we’re there, now. The terrorists are there now. We fight this out, I think, or we face a hellish day-to-day existance for a long, long time - an existance wherein, for the foreseeable future, you kiss your kids as you leave for work and then pray that you’ll see them again at day’s end.

See also The Truth on Iraq.

In a neat bit of synchronicity, Instapundit asks the blogosphere for some new ideas on Iraq besides “cutting and running” and “staying the course” and the ’sphere responds.

Related: UPDATED Feb 18, 2007
Baghdad Violence Drops; APathetic
Mark Steyn reminds us this is not Bush’s war
Reassessing Iraq and Just War
herzhonour Says:
December 5th, 2006 at 2:14 pm

I’m really disappointed in your use of no WMD and immoral war. How about the
UN resolutions Saddam broke endlessly? Please read up on the real reasons, all
of them for invading Iraq. And there is all kinds of evidence of
precursors and equipment that Saddam had hidden all over Iraq.
It’s been reported by even the media of his potential of being
nuclear armed within a year of the sanctions being lifted against his government.
If we hadn’t gone in and finished what was left undone fromthe gulf war we
would be staring at another country targeting America with WMD.
‘
Have none of you ever hear about war having more than one front/theatre?
Have any of you looked at an international map to see exactly where Iraq is located?
I guess Roosevelt was a dupe for attacking and invading Morocco when
we actively entered WWII, it was just a distraction from the real war. /sarc
Good thing you aren’t in charge making strategic decisions.

TheAnchoress Says:
December 5th, 2006 at 2:53 pm

Well, Herzhonour, I’m not entirely sure who you are addressing…but it mustn’t be me, since I support the action and have myself written about Saddam being a year away from nukes. Maybe you should re-read me again?

Sigmund Carl and Alfred Says:
December 5th, 2006 at 3:03 pm

Superb, superb post.

I noted today that “It is an unequivocal truth that Utopias cannot be created without imposing tyranny.”

That needs to be remembered as we dealing with the reality of the radical Islamist agenda. There are no magic bullets or ‘if only’ this or that were different, that will make dealing with today’s real threats any easier.

newton Says:
December 5th, 2006 at 3:12 pm

I guess herzhonour was addressing stephanie.

TheAnchoress Says:
December 5th, 2006 at 3:15 pm

HEH. I guess she was, Newt. You’re more observant than I am…but then you’re about to deliver a baby…that tends to heighten your awareness some.

david foster Says:
December 5th, 2006 at 4:20 pm

“Precision” can be achieved only when doing something that has been done before, or is a close variant to something that has been done before. Take a company whose product line is obsolete and is clearly facing catastrophe a few years down the pike: if you try to orchestrate major change–new products, new distribution channels–things will look chaotic at first. Cynics will point out that your chances of success are not 100% (ignoring the certainty of failure in the do-nothing case.) Many people will wish that you had left well enough along.

Bush has been willing to try to deal with underlying problems, not just kick the can on down the road for someone else to deal with a few years later.

david foster Says:
December 5th, 2006 at 4:23 pm

Regarding dreams, ideas, and visions, here’s something written by the French writer Georges Bernanos. The quote dates from 1940, after France had fallen to the Nazis and Britain stood along.

“No one knows better than I do that, in the course of centuries, all the great stories of the world end by becoming children’s tales. But this particular one (the story of England’s resistance–ed) has started its life as such, has become a children’s tale on the very threshold of its existence. It mean that we can at once recognize in it the threefold visible sign of its nature. it has deceived the anticipations of the wise, it has humiliated the weak-hearted, it has staggered the fools. Last June all these folk from one end of the world to the other, no matter what the color of their skins, were shaking their heads. Never had they been so old, never had they been so proud of being old. All the figures that they had swallowed in the course of their miserable lives as a safeguard against the highly improbable activity of their emotions had choked the channels of circulation..They were ready to prove that with the Armistice of Rethondes the continuance of the war had become a mathematical impossibility…Some chuckled with satisfaction at the thought, but they were not the most dangerous…Others threatened us with the infection of pity…”Alone against the world,” they said. “Why, what is that but a tale for children?” And that is precisely what it was–a tale for children. Hurrah for the children of England!

Men of England, at this very moment you are writing what public speakers like to describe in their jargon as one of the “greatest pages of history”….At this moment you English are writing one of the greatest pages of history, but I am quite sure that when you started, you meant it as a fairy tale for children. “Once upon a time there was a little island, and in that island there was a people in arms against the world…” Faced with such an opening as that, what old cunning fox of politics or business would not have shrugged his shoulders and closed the book?”

Flopping Aces Says:
December 5th, 2006 at 6:06 pm

Free Jamil Hussein

First things first for today’s update on the AP’s fraudulent story "The Burning Six". Thanks to Jessica Well for making these two icons for all to share on their blogs.  Take them and put them up: Meanwhile Mark Tapscott writes…

Webloggin Says:
December 6th, 2006 at 1:35 pm

Iraq and pulling out

Israel has usually, although not always, been adept in the battlefield. She’s been a total failure in the media. However, for the first time, I’m seeing signs that she’s fighting back.

The Anchoress » A fine and gallant man… Says:
January 1st, 2007 at 2:28 pm

[...] It will be a damn shame if First Sgt. Charles Monroe King and the other splendid soldiers we have lost in Iraq have their deaths rendered meaningless because the United States has decided that surrender is more noble than victory. As I wrote here, maybe we’ve just been fighting “too nice.” Maybe we’re too aggressive in some areas and not enough in others. [...]