Remember the Objective

For years, I have been fine with the idea that the Sunni insurgency could be crippled with an amnesty for all but the highest level of Baathists. I know that some Americans have been offended at the idea but I think they are confused. The objective is to defeat the insurgency and help Iraq develop a democracy. I find it absurd that we might object to amnesty because that would mean letting killers of Americans off the hook. Strategypage writes:

Stopping the Sunni Arab terrorists is another political problem. The Sunni Arab killers want amnesty. Not just for the deaths that took place in the last three years, but for those that were carried out by Saddam's security forces over the last three decades. For that, deals can be worked out. Most Iraqi's are tired of the killing. But amnesty would also cover the killing of foreigners (that is, American troops). Most Iraqis are OK with that as well. But the United States is also a democracy, and the American people are not OK with that kind of amnesty. Even U.S. Democrats, many of whom would be fine with accepting that kind of amnesty, know that selling it to the American public would be a, well, formidable task. For this reason, the U.S. media stays away from the amnesty story, which has long been big news in Iraq. The latest proposal in Iraq is for the Iraqi parliament to just go ahead and make the amnesty deal, even for those who killed Americans, and let the American people scream all they want. That would be interesting…

This thinking is so back-assward that it is frightening. We have soldiers dying to gain an objective, and that objective is to defeat the insurgency. If this means that some Baathists will get away with murder, so be it. A lot more Iraqis have died at Baathist hands over the decades, so if the Iraqi Shias and Kurds can stomach the idea, so should we. The alternative is to fight even beyond when the Shias and Kurds are willing to fight the Sunnis just to try and kill every Baathist around--and endure the casualties to pursue that objective.

Win the war. Worry about getting justice for the Baathists later. Strategypage also noted elsewhere that the Iranians are killing Baathists inside Iraq in revenge for the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s! We could be patient and do the same. Remember, an Iraqi amnesty is not an American amnesty. We could put rewards on the heads of specific high level Baathists and also seek them out when they travel outside of Iraq. This is a long war and we can hunt these guilty thugs other ways than by maintaining 140,000 troops in Iraq for decades.

The objective is to win the war. That means ending the Baathist resistance. And if amnesty can end that resistance, we should not stand in the way. But remember, we can still seek the Baathists out in other ways. Besides, I doubt that the angry Shias and Kurds out for revenge will stop entirely trying to kill the former tormenters. Slow justice is still justice.

Remember the objective.