The real meaning of the surge

The surge greatly reduced the violence in Iraq and, in concert with Sunnis who had turned away (at least temporarily) from al Qaeda’s inhuman cruelty, decimated al Qaeda. But it has changed nothing essential. As I have been pointing out for five years, there is no “victory” even theoretically in sight. In order to prevent Iraq from descending into chaos or being taken over by enemies, we will still have to stay there forever, a future embraced by John “a hundred years in Iraq is fine with me” McCain, as well as by Richard “Rich” Lowry in his syndicated column, who argues that, now that our troops have successfully stabilized the Iraq situation (which, let us remember, had reached a crisis point in late 2006), we must not reduce our troops.

Meaning, the surge has produced, not victory, but a license for the U.S. to remain in Iraq forever.

Meanwhile, back from a 10 day visit to Iraq, Rich Lowry pledges his troth to McCain:

From the prism of the war, a lot of the conservative criticisms of McCain fade toward insignificance: He was right about the surge, and he’s the candidate standing in the way of a President Obama or Clinton potentially throwing away all we’ve accomplished. [Italics added.]

Good show, Rich! You’ve just adopted the standard neocon line of the last six and half years: Only the illusory “war on terror/war for victory in Iraq” matters; next to the illusory war, all other issues fade into insignificance.

NR’s editors further show how they have accommodated themselves to McCain in the cut line of an editorial today:

Conservatives and McCain should neither pretend that we have no differences nor obsess about those differences.

In other words, we are in your camp, Senator. We’re returning to our usual meaningless mode of supporting moderate-to-liberal Republican national leaders while endlessly offering them conservative advice which they just as endlessly ignore.

* * *

As reported in today’s New York Times:

There is an overarching reason American commanders in Iraq want a pause in American troop reductions this summer: The United States has learned through painful experience that security can rapidly deteriorate if it overestimates the ability of Iraq’s forces to keep the peace.

Duh!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 13, 2008 08:02 PM | Send