Even more dangerous is the real possibility that the US congress might actually force a pullout from the Middle East in 2008 or 2009. The repercussions of cutting and running from the Middle East will be felt for two generations.

Running from Beirut in 1983; Iraq in 1991; and Somalia in 1994-5, only emboldened Islam. It did not deter it. Giving Iraq over to fascists and Iranian agents will herald a gigantic defeat for Western civilization. Iran sensing that the West is weak and perhaps on the brink of strategic defeat in Iraq and elsewhere, is now looking to embolden its own tactical advantage and leverage.

Perversely from the Western viewpoint we are on the cusp, for the first time in Iraq’s bloody and violent history, of attaining a semblance of a Constitutional democracy that is pro-Western. It is not sensible to withdraw from Iraq and lose forward ground bases against Iran. If Iran is truly the threat that most of the world thinks it is, what geopolitical or military logic is there in throwing away your forward base of operations in Iraq? You can’t invade and destroy the Iranian regime from Kuwait. Check a map. You need to quickly effect a pincer movement from east and west towards Teheran. This is yet another good reason why we need to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan.

For the chattering moral relativists and socialist defeatists logic is irrelevant. The war is lost, all wars are bad, and can’t we all just get along ?

As Victor Hanson commented: "Prewar forecasts warned a worried public that we might lose 3,000-5,000 soldiers just in removing Saddam. Three years later, we have removed him and sponsored a democracy to boot, and at far less than those feared numbers. But we react as if we had faced unexpected numbers of casualties.

Despite the fact that al Qaedists were in Kurdistan, Al Zarqawi was in Saddam’s Baghdad, terrorists like Abu Abas and Abu Nidal were sheltered by Iraqis, and recent archives disclose that hundreds of Iraqi terrorists were annually housed and schooled by the Baathists, we are nevertheless assured that there was no tie between Saddam and terrorists. Those who suggest there were lines of support are caricatured as liars and Bush propagandists.

Apparently, we are asked to believe that the al Qaedists whom Iraqis and Americans kill each day in Iraq largely joined up because we removed Saddam Hussein."

For Iran the hyperbole is the same. Endless dialogue with mad fascists is the preferred program. If Iranians kidnap UK servicemen, well that is okay. If Iran threatens Israel with a nuclear Armageddon that is fine – those Jews are fascist Shylock’s anyways. Iran should have the bomb why not? We do.

From such simpleton logic flows the case against being resolute against Iranian Mullah inspired fascism. Like the pre-war forecasts in Iraq so the prewar forecasts for a strike on Iran would be the same - except even more exagerrated. By putting the casus belli for the Iraq war all on WMD the Bush administration 'dumbed down' the 23 good reasons to go to war, in the expectation of an easy, cheap and internationally sanctioned victory. By trying to take a short cut, the Bushies short-circuited any claims to the moral high ground and have destroyed their own credibility, so much so, that an attack on Iran is almost a political impossibility. This may change if the Iranians are still found killing American soldiers in Iraq in a few months time but even then, I doubt very much that the left wing US media or the political opportunists sniffing a victory in the 2008 US elections would take much notice or allow another 'pre-emptive' strike, even after a few hundred American boys have been murdered by the Iranian regime.

As with pulling out of Iraq in 1991, we just had to return and do a dirtier and hader job later. So it will be with Iran. We can ignore it, rationalise it, put our hands over our ears and hum madly, but at some point a war with Iranian fascism is inevitable. To win such a conflict we need to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, that much is obvious. In the longer term breaking Iran; destroying OPEC and imposing ourselves on the Middle East is a necessity. Our economies, civilization, security and moral standards demand it.

I even have a good name for the next war, the one with a resurgent Persia, we can call it: ‘The neo-imperialist crusade to end Persian fascism and the pagan Arab empire.’ That sounds like a winner.

Page 2 of 2 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 | Next