Thursday, July 17, 2003 :::
 
Why Conservatives Should Read This Blog...A Very Good Man With a Funny Name Bows Out.

I Don't Mind Saying I Told You So. Some time ago--immediately after the first round of battles had concluded--A Mind That Suits offered his opinion that the Administration's war plan was flawed from start to finish. It is now becoming axiomatic.

The Left had no war plan of course, and only remained silent so long as things were looking good for the war effort. They have still shown no signs of horror over what we found in Iraq, such as the room full of Iranian corpses, each with a dossier with front and side photos taken right after the victim had been shot in the head. Nor has any Leftist apologized for blaming the poverty of the country on international sanctions and not on Saddam's Bolshevism and thievery (not that there is much difference between the two.) The billion-dollar stack of cash,the gold, the palaces, the emptied bank accounts should all have induced some modicum of embarrassment, but it hasn't. Their glee as things are turning sour is revolting.

That said, the much more important point is that a conservative administration would not go into war with too few soldiers, or without a plan for proper post-war administration. Nor would any conservative worth his salt begin planning to invade two more countries when the two we already occupy are proving two much for us. (Forgot about Afganistan, didn't you? A Mind That Suits ran into an old mentor, a brilliant man who served as an ambassador in the Middle East, and even he screwed up his face for a second, but he acknowledged the justice of the observation.) Nor would a conservative administration ignore the history of what happened to previous major powers who sought to "straighten out" South Asia. At one point, when we had merely won two large battles, and not the war, there was open talk of invading Syria and Iran as well, which means our troops would have been actively engaged throughout an area that was last "subdued" by the Mongols 750 years ago. (Parts of it were later controlled by the Ottomans.)

What were the results of this awful war plan? Many Iraqis lost what little they had in the looting, women are unsafe, the Weapons of Mass Destruction have disappeared into residential areas (where there are indeed reports of strange illnesses), our allies have been embarrassed, and the enemy has had time to regroup and is waging a highly effective guerilla war against us, as our military commander there acknowledged this morning. Let us not forgot the little problem of handing the Left here and abroad every rhetorical weapon they need.

"Allah is with the victor" is an age-old Muslim saying, and it fits well with plain old common sense, so the Iraqi people are waiting to see what will happen. Bill Clinton did nearly irreparable harm to this country by sending our troops into battle every year of his presidency and then pulling them out if things got difficult. Who can say what will happen to our prestige and power if George Bush loses this war because of overreaching?

There is talk that the war plan was perfect, but the peace was not planned at all. This is untrue. The drive on Basra and Baghdad were battles, not the war. The war is still going on. We sent in a lean, mean fighting machine, either to showcase Donald Rumsfeld's reform of the military or to satisfy his ego. His unreasonable fury with anyone who disagrees indicates that there is probably not much difference. We should have sent in up to 300,000 troops: 100,000 to advance, 200,000 to do "nothing" but secure the safety of the people of Iraq and the known WMD sites. The battle plans were perfect, the war plan was a disaster.

Which does not mean that we are fated to lose. The conservative press, which has been unconservatively caught up in the elation, should erupt in loud and unrelenting cries for substantial increases in troop size. And there should be much rehashing of every error that led to the current impasse. The war was just and we should have gone in; it's the way we did it that has caused unnecessary suffering. Completely unnecessary suffering. Unless we reject this anti-conservative triumphalism, we may yet face disaster.

While We're At It. A conservative administration would not toy with the idea of making a Supreme Court Justice of Alberto Gonzales, the current White House counsel and a shameless liberal.

A Good Man, A Funny Name. A Mind That Suits was surprised to note this morning the retirment of of Philadelphia's Cardinal, Anthony Bevilacqua. He is one of those matter-of-fact fellows that eschews publicity but does the right thing, as evidenced by the lack of scandal in his Archdiocese. When liberals were worried that the scandals might lead to a ban on gay priests, Bevilacqua, under questioning, answered simply that he already had such a policy. But he has reached the age of 80, retirment time for cardinals, and the Pope has accepted his resignation. The only thing amusing about this very serious man is his name, which translates to "you drink the water." Italian names are mostly place names or real words, such as "candela" (candle), the name of a famous soccer player. Full phrases are rare, and the significance of the name is hard to guess. But that's what it is. May he have a blessed and restful retirement.

::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 11:32 AM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.