Wednesday, April 14, 2004

John Derbyshire in National Review online has a thought provoking article today (click here) He postulates that we have chosen a middle ground in Iraq, one that is wholy unsatisfactory. I must say I agree, I don't think it would be a negative to occupy Iraq for the next century until they are ready to strike out on their own, at the very least we should insist on permanent military bases like we have in Germany and Japan. Yet another part of me likes the idea of the first way, identify those who are waging terrorist war against us, bomb them into rubble and warn them that we won't be so nice the next time. Force may be the only thing Islam understands or respects, but because it has total disregard for human life that may not work either.

His best line though sums up warfare nicely:

"War consists mainly in one bunch of fired-up young men setting out to kill another bunch of fired-up young men. Wars are won when one side runs out of young men, or out of fire-up. They don't end until then. Our problem in Iraq, basically, it seems to me, is that we have not killed enough fired-up young male Iraqis insistent on killing innocents."

true enough.

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