|
Good Morning JAM,
Yes, its going to be a long hard fight and we will have more to be horrified by and cry about. Most of these people are really clueless about any Westerners and they are easily led both out of fear and frustration, not to mention bewilderment. They have a bunch of so called "clerics" telling them that we are the bad guys despite the fact that just a few months ago they were so happy we got rid of Saddam for them. The Arabic news media aren't being either helpful or objective and this not only annoys, it hurts as our guys laid it on the line for the very people who are now being led astray by these (expletive deleted).
The basis of terrorism is moral cowardice. The Islamic doctrine of the obligation of hospitality is absolute. These guys are going to be in sorry shape when they come face to face with their Prophet. I am confident that Muhammad was a sincere man who served God to the best of his ability and conscience so my Catholic (Jesuit) training argues that he is happily esconced in paradise. I can't help wondering what he must think of all of this.
As to more boots on the ground. Who are they going to fight? We have enough combat power in country to defeat any army on earth. I think its not the numbers but the specialty traninng that we need to look at. We need intel types to sniff out who is planning what, we need Special Forces types to get involved at the grass roots level, and we need civil affairs types who can help build a responsible infrastructure of local leadership. Also, we need engineer units to keep the physical infrastructure running. Off hand, I'd say we have plenty enough grunts to handle things. Most of all we need to get our side of the story to the local people in a way that makes sense to them. This is an ancient and in its own way a sophisticated culture, but it is fundamentally different from ours. We need to find common grounds of understanding to establish in the minds of the ordinary Iraqi people that we really are the good guys. Unfortunately, we do need to keep a reasonable troop strength there to handle matters until the locals can take over and run their own show. That will take some time but it can be done. Like I said, its going to be a long hard process. Well, what the hell, like my sergeant said, "We're the U.S. Cavalry and that's our job"!
|