Kerrey Defends Iraq War Better than Bush
In the Wall Street Journal former Democratic Senator and current New School president Bob Kerrey defends the Iraq War:
Let me restate the case for this Iraq war from the U.S. point of view. The U.S. led an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein because Iraq was rightly seen as a threat following Sept. 11, 2001. For two decades we had suffered attacks by radical Islamic groups but were lulled into a false sense of complacency because all previous attacks were “over there.” It was our nation and our people who had been identified by Osama bin Laden as the “head of the snake.” But suddenly Middle Eastern radicals had demonstrated extraordinary capacity to reach our shores.
As for Saddam, he had refused to comply with numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions outlining specific requirements related to disclosure of his weapons programs. He could have complied with the Security Council resolutions with the greatest of ease. He chose not to because he was stealing and extorting billions of dollars from the U.N. Oil for Food program.No matter how incompetent the Bush administration and no matter how poorly they chose their words to describe themselves and their political opponents, Iraq was a larger national security risk after Sept. 11 than it was before. And no matter how much we might want to turn the clock back and either avoid the invasion itself or the blunders that followed, we cannot. The war to overthrow Saddam Hussein is over. What remains is a war to overthrow the government of Iraq.
Those words are better than anything President Bush has strung together in months.
Kerrey then goes ask what would have happened had Saddam Hussein been deposed internally:
Suppose we had not invaded Iraq and Hussein had been overthrown by Shiite and Kurdish insurgents. Suppose al Qaeda then undermined their new democracy and inflamed sectarian tensions to the same level of violence we are seeing today. Wouldn’t you expect the same people who are urging a unilateral and immediate withdrawal to be urging military intervention to end this carnage? I would.
It’s not all about hypotheticals with Kerrey. He goes on to describe the reality of Iraq:
American liberals need to face these truths: The demand for self-government was and remains strong in Iraq despite all our mistakes and the violent efforts of al Qaeda, Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias to disrupt it. Al Qaeda in particular has targeted for abduction and murder those who are essential to a functioning democracy: school teachers, aid workers, private contractors working to rebuild Iraq’s infrastructure, police officers and anyone who cooperates with the Iraqi government. Much of Iraq’s middle class has fled the country in fear.
With these facts on the scales, what does your conscience tell you to do? If the answer is nothing, that it is not our responsibility or that this is all about oil, then no wonder today we Democrats are not trusted with the reins of power. American lawmakers who are watching public opinion tell them to move away from Iraq as quickly as possible should remember this: Concessions will not work with either al Qaeda or other foreign fighters who will not rest until they have killed or driven into exile the last remaining Iraqi who favors democracy.
The key question for Congress is whether or not Iraq has become the primary battleground against the same radical Islamists who declared war on the U.S. in the 1990s and who have carried out a series of terrorist operations including 9/11. The answer is emphatically “yes.”
Retreating from Iraq without victory “would hand Osama bin Laden a substantial psychological victory.” The American “paper tiger” would be alive and well in bin Laden’s eyes.
I’m probably butchering the definition but I’ll describe Kerrey’s position as liberal realism. He treats the current situation as it is, not as he wants it to be. Retreating from Iraq won’t placate the Islamists. They won’t go back to their caves and oppress their women in peace. The Islamists will view the U.S. and the West as weak. Dreams of a new caliphate will materialize in their minds. They’ll envision finally conquering Vienna–only this time internally–and spreading Islam across Europe. Bush’s mistakes are in the past. For the sake of peace and security we need to put together a bipartisan endeavor created by people of goodwill to fight the long war we face.
“The Left’s Iraq Muddle” [via JammieWearingFool]
And here I thought letting bin Laden go when we had him trapped in Tora Bora gave him a psychological victory. Silly me, I guess that probably just showed him how tough-minded and determined we are.