Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Reclaiming Our Honor

Even aside from defending our national interests in Iraq, fighting there now will help erase the stain of past betrayals in Iraq. Will the Shias trust us again if we bug out now?

If we betray them a second time, don’t expect a third welcome. They already mistrust our honor after the 1991 bug-out that left them in the hands of Saddam Hussein. And it won’t just be the Iraqis who watch whether we keep our word; the Afghanis, the Saudis, the Jordanians all will take note of another retreat — and they will make their deals with radical Islamist terrorists accordingly.


We also abandoned the Kurds in 1975 in one of those Realpolitik deals that gave Iran a better border deal with Iraq. Will the Kurds think we won't turn on them again if they see us abandon the Shias a second time?

Will anybody trust us as an ally for the next generation? Will any enemy fear us?

Yet another price we pay for that dissent the anti-war side engages in so enthusiastically.

It's almost as if our Left is pursuing exactly what they want to achieve.