But the party that boasts of its nuanced big brains still doesn't understand our strategy in Iraq. Unwilling for months to either disagree with our strategy or to admit they don't understand the strategy, the anti-war Left has denied even recognizing that we have a strategy.
And even after the President gives a speech and announces our strategy, I figured the Left still wouldn't get it. As I wrote to Glenn Reynolds:
Perhaps the White House should have slapped a yellow cover on it and called it "Iraq Strategy for Dummies." They could make quite a series what with the confusion over intelligence, WMD, Al Qaeda, the word "imminent", etc.
And on the way home, listening to NPR (yes, yes, I know, I know), the loyal opposition did not disappoint me. Daniel Schorr was the first I heard. I tuned in only to the last ten seconds or so, and though I usually turn the station rather than listen to his mind-clouding intonations, I steeled myself to listen. I'm glad I did. Dan actually complained that the strategy document was more of a public relations document than a military planning document. To which there is only one response: No sh*t, Sherlock.
And the NPR announcer up next announced that the President's speech was an effort to explain our "war against Iraq." Well there's a source of confusion right there! We are not at war with Iraq. The Iraqis are our allies. We are fighting jihadis and Baathists upset they can't lop off limbs unmolested and in peace.
And then the report goes on to describe how Senators Reid (CORRECTION: make that "Reed" and not "Reid," I think) and Kerry (who is a "combat veteran" NPR reminds us) think that specific withdrawal dates were the most important thing the President could have announced and he did not. Well here's a clue, you two budding Von Moltkes, since our goal is victory and victory depends on defeating a thinking and resisting enemy, we can't predict a pull-out date. The only way we can set a date is to end the war by losing and announcing the time and place the last US helicopter will lift off from our embassy roof in the Green Zone. They don't want that, now do they?
Really, the anti-war Left cannot learn. The president tried to pound the strategy into their big brains with a two-by-four, and still they stare blankly. Clearly, the President needs to speak more slowly and use smaller words so they will finally get it.
Why is victory so hard for the Left to fathom?
UPDATE: Strategypage notes the amazing ability of the anti-war side to fail to recognize that we've had a strategy all along in Iraq. And that the major component of that strategy--arming the locals to do the fighting--is counter-insurgency 101. That's just how it is done.
Strategypage also notes this:
So the next time you feel inclined to tag Arabs as illogical and given to fanciful (and unprovable) beliefs, just take another look at this battle over "where is the strategy" in the American and Western press.
Reality-based community, indeed. This deserves a Glenn Reynolds' patented "heh."
