Contributors
J.F. Kelly, Jr. - Contributor

J.F. Kelly, Jr. is a retired Navy Captain and bank executive who writes on current events and military subjects. He is a resident of Coronado, California. [go to Kelly index]

Caught Between Iraq and a Hard Place
Has the US been too tolerant?...
[J. F. Kelly, Jr.] 8/20/04

With approximately 150,000 troops still deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and no end to that commitment yet in sight, the United States, at present, is ill prepared to deal with another contingency. There are, however, plenty of possible scenarios that could warrant U.S. military intervention. A Chinese attempt to annex Taiwan by force and aggression by a nuclear-armed North Korea are just two of the possibilities that come to mind. Meanwhile, the threat of international terrorism is ever present and Iran, ruled by Islamic fundamentalists who hate us, will probably soon join the nuclear club.

The threats are many but our resources are limited.

Attempts to shift more of the responsibilities for security from our forces to the Iraqis themselves have been less than successful. Persuading Iraqis to fight other Iraqis, even those responsible for sewing chaos, is no easier than getting Muslim nations to criticize other Muslim nations. If our forces attack the insurgents in the shrines and holy places they fight from, we are denounced. If we withdraw and permit the insurgents to terrorize all who cooperate with the Americans, we are just as strenuously denounced. It is a classic no-win situation from which we are unable to extricate ourselves without inviting total chaos.

It surely is demoralizing for our soldiers. Instinct and training tells them that they must crush the militants led by Muqtada al-Sadr and others who wreak havoc from their religious sanctuaries. Yet they are warned that they risk the wrath of multitudes of Iraqis if they violate the holy places. It is difficult to achieve anything useful with such constraints, particularly when Iraqi troops, who must eventually take charge, show no stomach for fighting their own insurgents who are destroying much of what progress has been made.

This situation could drag on longer than the patience of the American public, already strained, will last. It is disturbingly reminiscent of the failed attempt to “Vietnamize” the fighting before we withdrew from Vietnam. There are those who urge that we just declare victory and get out. But it would be a hollow victory as Iraq descended into chaos.

We have tolerated the terrorism and insurgency in Iraq for too long, afraid of being seen as heavy-handed, ruthless conquerors, no better than the regime we overthrew. We permitted looting and lawlessness in the aftermath of our stunning military victory, hoping that the Iraqis themselves would rise to the occasion and establish order. They haven’t. So what do we do now?

There is little value in listening to opponents of the war say, “We told you so.” Large majorities of Americans, even John Kerry, supported the war at some point. Kerry says that he would have done things differently, but he has yet to elaborate on what he would have done differently other than to consult more extensively with the French, whose support in Iraq wouldn’t have made a particle of difference, militarily or otherwise.

The battle to win the hearts and minds of Iraqi Muslims, Shiite or Sunni, has not gone well. It was really never a realistic objective. We are damned if we do and equally dammed if we don’t by most of them. Unquestionably, there are many Iraqis who want the chaos ended but even they tend to blame us for the chaos. They want to take control of their country and tell the Americans to leave. Unfortunately, they are nowhere close to being in control of anything.

For them to have a fighting chance of stabilizing the country, establishing security and building enough consensus to govern effectively, they have to defeat the insurgents and their fanatical religious leaders. To do this, they require us. For us to do it for them means to do whatever is necessary to root them out of the shrines and holy places that they themselves have already profaned by using them as bases from which to mount attacks. In the process, there will be collateral damage to these places. Putting unrealistic restrictions on our soldiers to avoid such damage at all costs endangers both the mission and their lives. We cannot have it both ways.

We need to get on with it or get out of there and leave the Iraqis to deal with the consequences, which will not provide much cause for victory celebrations by our side. CRO

copyright 2004 J. F. Kelly, Jr.

§