Comments from Belmont Club

These are some wonderful comments on a post named at the Belmont Club. The first is from Kinuachdrach...

"What is it with all the defeatism? The WAR in Iraq -- the real war against Saddam Hussein & his Baathist regime -- was a staggering success. Saddam's forces had held Iran's mighty army to a grinding stalemate for 8 long years -- roughly 400 weeks. The US (with some help from its allies) finished off the Baathists as a regime in 3 weeks. Incredible!

What happened after winning the real war has been messy & confusing. Lesson to be applied the next time -- Don't Bother with the Aftermath! There is no real reason why the US has to remain in a country after removing its repugnant regime.

It is time to start promoting the Anti-Powell doctrine (since Powell has proven himself to be such an Empty Jacket in the Armitage affair) -- We break it, you fix it; and if we don't think you fixed it right, we will break it again."

In another comment on the same post: Meme chose said...

Somebody once said that war is how Americans learn about other countries, which they certainly don't learn about in school. More true than not.

Afghanistan and Iraq have been initial skirmishes in a longer war, a good faith attempt on our part at a low violence solution to the clash between Islam and the US. In the long run their function will be to have shown that in some regions of the world the low violence approach leads nowhere of any use, to us or to our opponents.

"This is actually how America gears up for major wars. It took us centuries to decide to finish with the Indians, and the gestation of the Civil War lasted for decades. WWII, with Pearl Harbor, was an anomaly, although even there the conflict with Japan had been brewing for at least 10 years.

Bush understood this from the outset. The Democrats didn't want to understand any of it. In time it will become apparent that their attitude is at bottom bimodal - they either want to ignore problems overseas or to blast them off the agenda. They will become, as they were at the outset in Vietnam, our more adventurous and thereby aggressive party. One of the things the twentieth century showed very clearly is that there are few people less restrained by scruples than leftists in a hurry, especially when there are lots of ordinary people in the way, not responding the way the leftists think they should."

And my final sample, from a woman after my own heart: NahnCee said...

"So then, would we be looking at $10 a gallon oil after we've pulled out of Iraq?

I don't have a problem with that, especially if it kills off, finally, the dinosaur SUVs, and encourages faster engineering on the new generations of hybrids.

The only proviso I would look for in withdrawing from Iraq and the Middle East is that we absolutely ban any further immigration of *any* Muslims from *any* place in the world, AND, equally as important, ban them from entering our country for any reason whatsoever. I include in that seeking medical treatment, student visa's, tourism, or shopping up to and including trying to buy our sea ports. No Muslims allowed physically in the United States of America under any conditions or for any reason. They are welcome to conduct all business via cell-phone, computer and videotape.

If we are not prepared to quarantine ourselves to that extent, then it seems to me we'd best stay in Iraq until we've beaten them into submission, and if we can't beat them into submission then we need to purify the whole region with nuclear weapons."

The Gunslinger