In his latest revised collection of talking points, President Bush said, "We will not allow the terrorists to dictate the future of this century -- so we will defeat them in Iraq." - Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/08/20060831-1.html
But in this very same speech, he declares: "The war we fight today is more than a military conflict; it is the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century. (Applause.) On one side are those who believe in the values of freedom and moderation -- the right of all people to speak, and worship, and live in liberty. And on the other side are those driven by the values of tyranny and extremism -- the right of a self-appointed few to impose their fanatical views on all the rest."
So then we have two things going on at the same time, according to Bush: a military conflict whose focus is now in Iraq, and the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century.
That's a very sad situation for us, under the bumbling delusional leadership of Bush and the Neo-Conservatives, because: 1) U. S. forces can never win the military conflict in Iraq; and 2) Bush doesn't have a clue about how to win the ideological conflict. In fact, he doesn't even understand the ideological conflict. It is far more complicated than his simple-minded cartoon picture of a struggle between "freedom" and "tyranny." Even worse, Bush seems to think that if we kill all the terrorists in the military conflict, we will have won the ideological conflict. This ignores the obvious reality that our attempts to kill all the terrorists are in fact also killing and wounding thousands of innocent non-terrorists, and pushing untold millions of peaceful Muslims around the world into a desperate, wild-eyed hatred of the United States.
So where do we start? How do we begin to get ourselves out of this self-inflicted disaster in Iraq? For me, the best place to start is to recognize that U. S. forces can never defeat "the terrorists" in Iraq. This is not defeatism, as the Bush people think; it is reality, which they do not understand. And since we can never defeat the terrorists in Iraq, we should pull out immediately, the sooner the better. The longer we stay in Iraq, the worse things will be for us and for the Iraqis, because our continued presence continues to create new terrorist recruits throughout the Muslim world.
But why not? Why can't we defeat the terrorists in Iraq? Don't we have the most wonderful military in the world? With the most expensive, sexiest, high-tech equipment? And the finest medical care, which can prolong the life of destroyed bodies for years and years? And the bravest, strongest, best men and women fighters? And the most beautiful flag, displayed backwards on the right sleeve of our redesigned, functional-yet-beautiful uniforms? Why can't we defeat the terrorists in Iraq?
Because they have an infinite supply of replacements, and we do not: that is the basic reason. And the longer we remain in Iraq as an occupying army, the more recruits they will gain, from the millions of newly-enraged Muslims around the world.
Let's do the math. There are something like 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. (Source: http://www.islamicpopulation.com/ ) Let's suppose half of them are of fighting age, and half of those are men. That gives 400 million Muslim men of fighting age, world-wide. Now suppose only one percent of them are highly motivated, willing and able to fight against us in Iraq. That is a manpower pool of four million potential terrorist recruits for Iraq. If there are between five thousand and ten thousand hard-core terrorists in Iraq at any time (nobody really knows), then four million potential recruits are more than enough to keep them well-supplied forever, given normal birth rates. Meanwhile, we are reaching the bottom of the barrel of potential recruits in the USA, and having to pay out huge bonuses to disadvantaged people to induce them to volunteer.
Therefore, we cannot possibly win the military conflict in Iraq. We never will be able to "defeat the terrorists in Iraq," because they have an infinite supply of replacements, and we do not. (This is essentially the same problem we had in Viet Nam.) So President Bush's belief that we can defeat them is delusional nonsense. And his policy of "staying the course" in Iraq is a recipe for total United States failure.
Rev. Bill McGinnis is an Internet Christian minister, writer and publisher. He is Director of LoveAllPeople.org, a small private think tank in Alexandria, Virginia, and all of its related websites, including InternetChurchOfChrist.org,CommitteeForTheGoldenRule.org,CivicAmerican.com, and AmericanDemocrat.net. His agenda is to help maximize the happiness and well-being of all people. His blog is located at http://blog.myspace.com/revbillmcginnis
